Users 2: Glitched
by Starspike7
Summary: Ty woke up one morning and didn't read the User Agreement. Now the game that was once his favorite hobby has become his ultimate nightmare. First, Saren tried to merge with him and now the Collectors want to control him. Of everything he knows, one thing is for sure. He will escape... But save the day along the way or die and be remembered as a glitch?
1. You Can (Not) Come

**Ty:**

Everything in the Normandy had been boring ever since we'd left the Citadel. Sure, we saved it all and there was a party that was fun but after that it just stagnated. the best I could hope for was maybe to get off when we stopped at the Citadel and stretch my legs but that was it. Still, even when we did that I was looking over my shoulder expecting to get punched by some random red-haired marine or captured by a scar-faced bounty hunter.

We had gone on missions sure but Shepard always found a reason to leave me on board. On top of that, everyone in the ship seemed to stay away from me or avert their eyes whenever I walked passed. The fear that everyone had for me was so easily visible now, like my eyes had been opened since going to the party with them all.

Tali never talked to me now but I couldn't blame her since I had tried to leave her dead on the Citadel. Yet, I never once felt bad about it. The power I attained from no longer having a limiter was amazing and I knew if she died again that I wouldn't save her then either.

Garrus would still talk to me every now and then. I started putting on the biotic ball games on the viewing screen in the comm room and we would watch it. Though, I was really wondering if it was real and they were all just a bunch of individual AI or just a simulation running over the screen. It didn't help that the teams that I picked always seemed to win either.

Liara had changed the most out of everyone. Over the week and a half that we traveled she made it a point to sit down and eat with me. Though, it was more like an interrogation than an actual conversation as I was asked question after question about my powers.

Ashley, Shepard, and pretty much everyone else treated me like I was going to kill them if they looked at me funny. Always avoiding me and trying not to stare. Needless to say, everything was a hell-of-a-lot less fun.

Most of my time was spent sitting at the lunch table and seeing what I could do with my powers. By now, I'd mastered armor changing just because I did it so much. I hardly needed to focus on the armor I wanted to get into; I just had to think about it.

Along with that, Danny gave me the ability to glitch jump right before he left. It was pretty cool being able to get from one deck to another without having to take the elevator but it had its limits. I couldn't glitch from the Normandy to the Citadel even if we were docked there. Each Glitch had its own network and that network was always local, meaning that if it wasn't a part of the planet or ship that the glitch I was accessing was on, then I couldn't get to it through the glitch.

The corrupted data had its own perks as well. I was able to fire a so called 'data purge' out of my chest where the zero was. I also could do it out of my hands but red zeroes would appear in my palm right before I fired.

That last thing was… an irritant at worst. I was beginning to feel like someone was inside me and figured it was Saren's code that I absorbed from him. At a random moment I would start to get irritable and angry, hoping that someone would pick a fight with me. It felt like a primal rage, the same rage Saren displayed after finding out that Shepard connected with the beacon.

Luckily, right now I was at peace and sitting with my legs on the table and playing Tetris on my omni-tool. I had just lost a game after keeping it going for an hour and twenty-two minutes. Just as it happened I opened my mouth to shout a curse but was cut off as the entire ship shook violently.

I looked around at the ship and tried to decipher what the hell just happened. It never did it when we were entering atmosphere, and the only time I felt it shake before was…

"Oh, shit." I called at the ship lurched to the side and I was thrown from my chair into the wall.

Everything went fuzzy after that and I was forced to close my eyes and force my vision back into place. When I reopened my eyes there were fire everywhere as crewman panicked and rushed to engineering tunnels.

I began to push myself up but a panel from the ceiling came down and landed on top of me. At that point, I was pinned and the fires were getting closer. The wreckage was too low to try blasting it off with a data purge and I was in no place to try and pull myself out of it.

Just when I began to feel panic flow through my veins the ship lurched again and this time I was sprayed by debris from a nearby fire and forced to bring my arms up in defense. Hot metal and coals splashed up and down my forearms and I felt blisters begin to form on my arms and on the upper left side of my forehead where I felt something like a bolt head ping off my skull.

This was it, I was going to die after being useless for months. My mind began writing myself an obituary faster than I could follow what was happening. _Ty, however powerful and versed in code was too weak to remove a piece of metal from his legs and in the end suffocated from exposure to vacuum._

I looked out and saw Shepard sprint past on the opposite side of the room and into the area with the sleeping pods. Moving as fast as he possibly could, he began spraying the fires with an extinguisher he pulled off the wall and then made his way to the computer console in the back.

I would have called out for help but the explosions that were going off all around me now would simply drown me out. My eyes searched around frantically for some help but I couldn't see far thanks to the smoke. All that was running through my head was, '_Why do I have to wear regular clothes instead of my armor?'_

As I began to lose all hope I felt the metal plate lifted off me and when I looked over, I saw Garrus with his armor and helmet on lifting the metal. "Go."

I crawled out from under the wreckage as fast as possible and he let it drop down with a clang louder than the explosions. Garrus then reached behind his back and pulled off the set of Colossus armor I had purchased a while ago.

"Put this on."

Usually it took about five minutes for me to put on my armor but this time I was suited up in ten seconds and ready to go. "Okay, let's go."

He took off toward the elevator and opened a comm channel between us. "The life pods have been taken up by crew members up here so our only hope is to get down to the lower decks and get in one down in engineering."

We both rushed over to the elevator and I looked down the shaft, quickly noticing that the elevator should have been on this floor. "Well, shit."

Garrus began pacing and then pointed up at the stairs. "Let's take the stairs and get up there with Joker. But damn it, I told Tali to wait for us to come back."

I looked at the wall and then saw a glitch. "I got an idea."

I grabbed Garrus and put my hand on the wall. Quickly, we were sucked into the glitch and pulled through a digital tube that led us all the way to another glitch that came out just before the Mako. I was skilled enough that we came out right side up and managed to keep running.

"Just around this corner." We rushed past the Mako and into the engineering.

He was about three steps ahead of me when he slowed down and looked at the pods in awe.

"What is-" I stopped myself as I saw that only one pod was left and there was only one seat in it.

Garrus looked at me and motioned forward with his head. "Go ahead, I can find another way."

I looked in Garrus' eyes and knew that I couldn't take his spot. This as a world of code and I was the random variable. If everything went to shit then I had a chance to survive but Garrus… he wasn't an icon like Shepard.

"No, we are not taking you, Ty."

I looked at the pod and saw Tali. She was glaring at me and I knew that it was her that just spoke.. Not just by her voice but by the way she was looking at me. It was saying that this was my punishment for my crimes. For refusing to save her.

I turned away and took off running back into the bay to use another glitch. My legs began to tire from simultaneously holding my balance as the ship kept searching and shaking from the Collector blasts. It was so bad that as soon as I got to the glitch there was a hard pitch and I was thrown to the side.

I smashed against Ashley's gun table and pistols were thrown everywhere. Another blast rocked through the ship and this time the laser pierced down into the bay causing all gravity shut off. The laser flashed out and when the flare died I saw that the glitches had disappeared.

My instincts took over and I jumped to the hole that the laser made, fully aware of the searing hot metal that lined the hole. I placed my arms out ahead of my and made myself as this as possible through the first hole and luckily made it too the other side.

I landed on the ceiling after that next to the second hole and leveraged myself back to the ground. My mind was racing at a million miles an hour but one goal stood out. I had to make it to the escape pod in the upper decks before the final blast hit the ship.

I activated my mag boots and began moving as fast as possible to the stairs. I got to the top and saw Shepard loading Joker into the pod.

Panic was all that I felt and I took off toward them and witnessed my life flee away as the final blast from the Collector ship hit. The blow forced me up and off the Normandy's deck as I fell into space. I did my best to keep my eye on Shepard knowing that he dies now but he will get brought back.

I on the other hand wasn't going to come back. It was beginning to look like the end. all scenarios for why I this was happening to me began running through my head. _Maybe the AI curbed the difficulty spike too high, maybe there was just no way that I could have surrvived that, maybe it was just bad luck. Heh, I could see my friends making jokes about this now. Ty just wanted to play a game, fuck him right? I'm dead in space._

_ Wait… what the hell am I saying wait for? I'm not talking to anyone. Wait, there I go again, Dead space._

I closed my hand and focused on the space armor from the third game and felt my armor begin to shift and change. As it did, I frantically searched for a life pod that I could get to. It would at least save me from not being found and the Mass Effect armor was space proof._ I just have to use this quick with only a hundred and fifty seconds of air._

I spotted a life pod and thrusted myself in that direction and the suit obliged by switching on and carrying me forward. The jets took a second but soon I was blasting forward to the pod but it was headed off in the same direction that I was going.

There was a kick in my suit when I was at the final stretch to the pod. It didn't even take a second for me to realize that the air had just shut off as I couldn't take a breath anymore. A shadow casted over my vision as the thrusters died out and everything began to tunnel until the light disappeared from my vision.

**S7: Well, this is how I chose to start this story. In parallel, with Mass Effect 2. It's gonna be a lot darker than the previous.**

**^Great, now I am dead in space. That is just great. You're just gonna bring me back when you bring back Shepard because that's just the obvious thing to do right?^**

**S7: Hehehehe, I said your vision went black. Not that you are dead.**

**^What?^**

**S7: See you guys next Monday! Questions will be answered every fifth chapter. Reviews are my inspiration fuel so you know, if you want me get to the point that I can upload twice a week. Just, you know, fill out the box bellow.**

**^You and Trebor will do anything for reviews. Won't you?^**

**S7: No, we didn't do fanservice in UiaWoF except for CTHI at the end.**

**^What?^**

**S7: Oh yeah, memory erased.**

**^Wait, my memory was erased? Now that I think about it, who the hell is Trebor and why do I know that he is a review-whore like you?^**

**S7: Uh, catch you folks 1473I2.**


	2. He Must (Not) be Recruited

**Tali:**

Tali watched the glass of alcohol in front of her as it bubbled with no where to escape thanks to the induction port she had on the top.

After everything they had all done, everything they had accomplished to save the galaxy, the Council chose to ignore it. Worse, they didn't even acknowledge Shepard's death. There was a funeral, a statute,even a memorial. Yet, it was like he still existed but was in a coma because nothing was being done to carry on his work.

"Bartender, give me the usual!"

Tali shot around as soon as she heard the voice, knowing it could be only one person. "Danny?"

Danny grabbed the glass off the table and quickly downed it but managed to keep his cheery demeanor. "How you doing Tali?"

"You are kidding me."

"I don't kid when it comes to drinking." He said as he took the seat next to her.

"No, I mean how can you be so happy when your best friend and Shepard are dead?" Tali said through gritted teeth.

"Well, let's just say reasons and leave it at that."

"Well, you are a helpful one." She attached the drink to her filter and took a drink.

"So, what do you plan to do on our break?"

"Break!? You call the Commander and Ty getting killed a break!?" She stood up and stood over him in anger.

He shrugged and ordered another glass. "Please, things like this- people like us. We aren't brought together only once. The reapers are coming and then the party starts."

"Oh my god, I think I hate you more than anyone else right now." She was being truthful too. She knew a lot of people and hated so many but Danny was on the top of her shit list.

"Honestly, I don't really care what you think of me." He stood up after his new glass arrived.

She just looked back at her drink and leaned her elbow on the table. "So, then why are you talking to me?"

Danny's hand was suddenly on her shoulder and he spoke in a hushed tone. "To tell you that I can forgive you, Cody can forgive you, pretty much everyone can. But Ty, when he gets back, he is going to be pissed. The universe doesn't just kill people like him. It lets them fester and boil in their own anger then it will release him back."

Her grip on her drink suddenly tightened enough that the glass shattered in her hand, catching the attention of the nearby guests and the bartender. "You can't be sure of that."

"Actually, I can. I saw him get picked up by the ship that destroyed the Normandy. How long do you think you have before he gets out?" With that, Danny turned around and walked out the door.

Tali turned back around and looked at her hand to make sure that the glass didn't cut her suit.

**Cody:**

Cody cracked his knuckles as he fidgeted uncomfortably across from the once Consort, but now Commander Bailey. "So, why did you call me here?"

"Just be calm for now, we have to wait for Danny to show up." he said sitting back in his seat.

"I'm sorry, it's just… you know."

He nodded. "Yes, losing Ty was… extremely unfortunate."

Danny walked in through the door sporting huge sporting on his face. "Damn, those Asari in the lounge really know how to put a smile on your face."

"Great, well, if you are done making sure you are physically satisfied, we have work to do." Bailey said sitting forward and leaning on his knees.

"Pft, we're Users. Nothing feels like work when we got universal powers." Danny replied waving Bailey off.

He sighed and bowed his head like he was praying. "Look, the virus that combined with Saren disconnected once he was killed and joined with Sovereign before escaping into another body. That thing is our sole bane in this little adventure and without… Ty."

Cody went wide eyed and looked over at an overly confident Danny. "I thought you said you saw him flying toward the collector ship?"

"I did. There is no way that that bastard is dead." His look went from shock to the same confidence as Danny.

"Either way, he's not around and that virus is infecting other systems, more important to me though, it's infecting the programs that live here." Bailey was obviously getting annoyed at this point. "Now, listen up. You two are their main target and one of the worst possible things right now is for you two to be together and using your powers."

"So, we have to split up?" Danny asked, realizing the gravity of the situation.

"Yes, I was thinking that we would have you both working different angles through areas that I have set up. Cody will go to the Alliance and hone his skills as a Soldier while you go and hunt down some of these infected programs."

Cody opened his mouth to ask why he was going to be stuck with the seemingly boring job, but he did admit to himself that being actually good with the weapons would definitely be better than relying on a randomass power to save his life.

"So, question, why do my powers go randomly? Like, I can only be sure to make an omni-tool and omni-blade when I need them. Everything else is just, slap it and hope for the best."

He leaned his head down and rested it on his hands. "Look, each one of you needed a limiter. Ty was the alpha test, his was just on time limit and it worked. Danny was the beta, to which we linked his to stamina, your power is the final test. We kinda are just trying to adapt with everything you boys do rather than just let you go wild and putting a limiter on later like we did with Layla."

Danny and Cody exchanged looks of confusion. "Layla? Ty's ex-girlfriend? She's here?"

"He didn't tell you? Figures, Ty has been in contact with Layla before he fought Saren. How long ago, we don't know. To what degree, again same answer. We only know because we were alerted to her presence last time. Generally, we will be alerted to something if it happens more then twice but with her… She is dangerous. If you boys come into contact with her. Let us know."

"What does she want?" Danny asked.

"From what she experienced in her playthrough, either revenge on us or destruction of all AI thus rendering the game to go by it's own parameters and giving her godhood within the machine." Bailey stood up and handed them both Data pads. "These are your assignments. Do exactly what is on them and we will be in touch in two years." He left after that.

Cody leaned back and looked over at Danny. "What do you think?"

"I think he's not telling us everything. Layla, from what I remember, wasn't necessarily a vengeful person. I don't know about you, but if she does contact me, I want to hear her side of the story."

Cody looked down at his datapad and took in the information as Danny got up. "So, I guess I'll message you later?"

Danny stopped by the door and chuckled. "No, Cody, we better not talk to each other for the next couple years. You hear what he said about the virus and it's hunt. Better it not get one of us and have a message to find the other."

"Okay, have fun then." Cody sighed and let Danny walk out the door. He read through the data pad and saw that the shuttle he was to get on left in three hours. "Great, what do I do for three hours, let alone two years?"

**Miranda:**

The Illusive Man continued to rewind and watch the footage that was recovered from Virmire as three boys that Shepard had brought with him were taking on what looked to be a beast from hell. One of the was wearing a blue suit of armor and he paused it just as the armor was beginning to morph back into the scorpion armor he was wearing formerly.

"Right there." The Illusive Man pointed at the screen. "Tell me why you would get rid of armor right as you are fighting… what ever that creature is."

Mirand though for a moment looking at the tape. "It's possible that he was planning on changing his armor... but has to go through a standard armor before moving to the new?"

"... Look at the time since he transformed to battle with the tall one."

Her eyes looked between the two clocks. 1.30.59 was when he first changed and he changed again at 1.40.59. "He was only changed for ten minutes?"

"And that is the same amount of time he spent in his other transformations."

She nodded, remembering the previous videos of his fights. "Sir, I must ask. Why are we studying these boys? It is obvious that they are loose cannons and were only barely controlled by Shepard. With him dead, I don't see any point in paying them attention."

He took a drag from his cigarette and put it out in his ashtray before standing up. "Because, Miranda, we are going to bring Shepard back. Get him back out there and ready for the Reapers. Once we do that, I want these boys on his team. I don't care if they are loose cannons, rebels without a cause, or gods of the universe. They are human and they have just as much of a stake in what is to come as the Commander will."

"Sir, I must protest here. From the information we gathered on all of them, without formal training they are more than likely to get everyone killed while attempting to accomplish their goal. She pointed at each ones profile that was pulled up. First she pointed to the one with glasses."This one, Danny, alcoholic, narcissist with the inability to take anything seriously." She pointed to the shorter, stocky boy. " Next, Cody, while he is the least volatile of the group, he is also the weakest, most of the time he has to hope for his power to give him what he want." Lastly, she gestured to the middleweight one, with a buzz cut and visible scar on his nose from his battle with Saren. "Ty, the most volatile, arrogant, destructive, power abusing, mental mystery of the group. One of the agents we had drink with him at Chora's Den after his fight with Saren told of him referring to everyone as programs and talking about how he could just as easily blow him apart with a data purge as he could drink him under the table."

"Do they not have the right to be? From what we gathered, they can basically do anything. Sources have found video footage of Ty being flung out the back of the Normandy and left to fall down to the surface of Virmire from a height well above that needed to kill a Krogan."

"Sir, he is the way he is out of luck and circumstance. Might I remind you of when we spoke of this yesterday and I brought up his videos pointing out that he does not think his actions through and instead chooses to make it up as he goes. A strategy that has done more harm than good in most cases."

"But, he is stubborn enough to get the job done. Miranda, as my second you have my permission to speak your mind but I will not allow you to second guess my decisions. You are to start with Danny. His recruitment will be key considering he is the most likely to follow orders."

She nodded and looked out the window. "Yes, sir. Will there be anything else I am to do?"

"Retrieve Shepard's body first. The data pad on your missions will be in your quarters."

Miranda nodded and turned to leave. "Very well, I will head out immediately."

**Ty:**

I was standing in the streets of Seattle with my dad, watching parade floats go by and marveling at the and the size of the Snoopy floating over head. But something was wrong, my dad was taller than me which was weird since we were the same height at 5'11". In fact, he was like several feet taller than me like when I… was… six-years-old.

I looked down at my body and noticed that I was wearing a spiderman shirt, blue jeans, and my old air Jordan basketball shoes. Looking back up I saw a giant spiderman floating above and my mouth fell agape. I knew it was a balloon but it was so… awesome.

My dad's kneeled down and put his hand on my shoulder. I looked over at him and noticed how much we looked alive comparatively with my older self. The only difference fell down to him having a bit longer hair and scars in different positions. Mine was on my upper left lip going to my nostril while his were on his eyebrow and chin.

He looked at me and pointed back to the balloon. "You know, he was just a kid like you before he became a hero."

I turned back and looked to Spiderman. "Really?"

"Yep, he only got his power to save the day out of circumstance. But he managed to take on the responsibility and used his powers to benefit everyone at the sacrifice of himself."

The smile that I was wearing dissipated when I realized that I not only didn't treat my powers in the cyber world with responsibility but instead like a spoiled child.

My dad's hands suddenly wrapped around my neck and he lifted me up to face him while choking me. As I looked at him, unable to breath he slowly shifted to John and his grip got tighter.

"Damn you, you bastard! You think this is a game?! It's my life you are playing with! You don't deserve to be a User! You don't deserve this power!"

I began to gasp until I finally opened my eyes and woke up. I noticed that I was leaning against some sort of glass and I pushed myself away from it only to see that I was being held in place in some… sort… of… pod?

_Oh, shit!_

I began to bang on the glass and scream, I was in a collector pod. The tight quarters finally set in and a strange gas began to pour out of small pores in the sides. I felt myself beginning to lose consciousness and put my hand to the glass focusing on opening it. The gas began to get to me and I wasn't able to focus enough to open it.

I got so tired that I leaned back against the glass and tried to hold my eyes open my but it only happened long enough to see a Collector with glowing eyes walk up and put his hand against the glass.

"Sleep User, you will not want to be awake for what happens next."

**^What happens next? Do I go badass and save the day?^**

**S7: We'll find out next week or at least, Thursday if I get another 2 chapters finished by then.**

**~When do I come in?~**

**S7: Soon, soon.**

**^Also, there you go Onkel. You know that I am captured by the collectors. Next chapter, I am gonna break out!^**

**S7: We'll see.**

**^What?^**

**S7: I said, we'll see. 1473I2.**


	3. You Are (Not) a Hero

**Danny: **

Danny looked out at the landscape of Ilium from his penthouse and let out a satisfied sigh. "Ah, this… this is how I should have been living from the start."

"Yes sir, is there anything I can get you?" His Asari secretary and maid asked as she brought him the scotch he ordered.

He took the scotch from her and took a sip. "Mm, that is delicious. Mind taking a look out that window and telling me what you see?"

She walked to the window and took in the view. "I see a city of evil and conniving. I see a place looking for someone to take over and use their power to make this something to be proud of."

Stifling a laugh, he shook his head. "While that was cute, it wasn't the correct answer. The correct answer was, the end of your fall."

She turned around to take a punch at him but he caught her punch and shot her in the stomach with his hidden blade gauntlet. "How did you… know?"

He rolled his eyes and picked up her hand revealing a zero that can only been seen when corrupted code multiplies. "Yeah, I saw this a few times when you created those fake articles to lead me off the trail of the collectors. It sticks around a little longer than you thought."

Shock began to set in and she clutched at her wound in an attempted to correct it. Danny didn't let her have the chance and instead turned her around and held her close. After giving her one last look at Ilium, he put his foot in the small of her back and kicked her out the window.

There was a long scream followed by a satisfying splat and he walked over to his chair and took a seat. "Gotta screen the help more these days. That is the third secretary this week."

He had been chasing the collectors and killing corrupted programs for a year and a half straight at this point with no real breaks. His hand hovered over his video phone app contemplating calling Cody but something stopped him. It had been six months since they had been in contact and Cody just dropped off the grid. Sure, the AI told him that Cody was just trapped in the rules of the game and being in the alliance, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was up.

As he sat there contemplating his doorbell rang. "Who could that be?"

He got up and walked over to his door hitting the button to open it only to close it again after seeing who was on the other side. He did this three more times cutting the woman off each time just as she opened her mouth. Quickly, he downed his scotch and hit the button to open the door.

Miranda Lawson was sitting on the other side wither her arms crossed and tapping her foot. "Are you done ye-"

He shut the door and opened it one more time. "Sorry, force of habit. So, what do I owe a visit from Miranda Lawson to?"

She leaped forward and pinned him to a wall. "How the hell do you know my name?"

"Um, you wanna tell me why you are here and then I will tell you how I know who you are?" He said, trying to keep his mind as she pressed the barrel of a gun to his stomach.

She looked at him closely for a minute before sighing and speaking. "I'm here because the Illusive Man wants you recruited to Cerberus. Now, how do you plan to explain how you know me?"

He was making a lot of assumptions on what they knew about him but if he played this right, he could get away without telling her anything about the future or that this was all digital. "I'm guessing that you know a lot about my powers. Well, here is a real kicker. I can read people's minds when they enter within a certain area from me. Basically, I know everything you do. By the way, how is Shepard coming along? You don't have to answer that, I already know."

She dug the barrel in farther. "Can you stop doing that?"

"Yes, but no point in it now. I already know everything you do." She pushed away from him after that and put a hand to her forehead.

"And here comes the headache that I predicted. So, will you join us?"

"Yeah, sure. I got nothing better to do." Danny said with a shrug. "So, what are we gonna do next? The bed is open."

She walked over and took a seat in the couch clutching her temples. "You have pissed me off beyond belief and have the gall to ask me to bed with you?"

He sighed and leaned against the wall where he stood. "Guessing you really didn't want to come and recruit me."

"If it was up to me, I would have ordered a hit on you. You're high risk, care about nothing other than yourself and friends, and collateral damage is nothing more than foreign words to you. If you can give me one reason, one good reason that can bring some doubt to everything that I think about you please do so."

He looked down at his glass and gave Miranda the most serious answer he would give anyone in this crazy, out of control, utterly impossible circumstance that they called life. "I'm all those things and I'm probably worse than you give me credit for but…" He looked up and locked eyes with her. "The Collectors took one of my best friends and I am going to cut a D into all their backs as I blast my way their leader and if you help me to accomplish this goal, I will play by your rules."

She sat up a bit and gave him a suspicious look. "You are willing to be a dog on a leash in order to accomplish your goals? You do realize that your friend is probably dead and saving him is not an option."

A wicked smile crossed his face. "Who said anything about my saving my freind? Ty can save himself."

Miranda shook her head in dismay over how diluted she probably thought he was. "He's more than likely dead. Why are you holding out that he is still alive?"

"Lets just say we have an in with the person upstairs that assures me he will be here soon."

She stood up after he spoke and started walking toward the door. "First thing we are doing at the facility is getting you a psych eval."

**Ty:**

I was sitting in what looked like an interview room for a brightly colored and very drab office complex. The fluorescent lights in the ceiling filled the room with an almost painful glow. Everything seems just a bit off as the hair on the back of my neck was always standing up.

A chill shoots through the air and a hand fell on my shoulder. I turned around and my reflexes took over forcing me back and picking up the chair for a weapon. Standing across from me was Tali on the now-being-destroyed Normandy, holding her hand out to stop him.

"We only have enough room for Garrus, you can save your own ass."

Winding up, Ty swings the chair at Tali but the quarian catches it making it disappear. "Let me in."

I go to tackle her but she steps out of the way making me miss and land on my stomach. Quickly, I pushed myles with one arm so it turned me over in time to see a piece of the ship breaks off and the vacuum of space star to pull me out.. It's at that moment that I realize Tali has moved and placed her hands on mine.

"this is what you deserve! You shouldn't be with us, we should have killed you from the start. I told you not to join us on the pod because I was silently hoping you would die but now you have the fate you deserve. Captured and experimented on by the collectors. Everything you have done to me… to everyone will finally be atoned for."

"No!" I felt my anger begin to unleash as I repositioned myself so that I was standing on the ground, mag boots activated. "I don't have to feel guilty at all for what I did. I did it because things could have been much worse if I didn't."

Tali put her hands in the center of my chest and pushed me back. "You didn't believe in us. We are better than you give us credit for."

I grabbed her by the shoulders and lifted her off the ground so that her mag boots wouldn't hold her any longer. "No, I do know what you're capable of. Your programs and you are only able to do what you are programed to do. Nothing more nothing less."

"You're a monster!" She yelled as she kicked me in the groin. I fell to my knees holding my groin and fighting my body trying to throw up.

As I sat their in pain, Tali pulled out her shotgun and put it to my head giving me a second to reply. "I'm not a monster, I'm a User. I do what I know I can do and know what you can't."

She didn't say anything but instead I say her finger tightening to pull the trigger. My eyes, closed as I prepared for the shot and my death. the gun click and shots fired but I didn't feel any penetrate me. Granted, my experience with getting shot has been limited to only a few times but I could honestly say that I was eighty-seven percent sure that I didn't get killed with the lack of pellets flying through my body.

I opened one of my eyes waiting for a second shot but instead saw Saren holding Tali by the throat and the shot gun in the other. I took off forward after seeing him and attempted to tack him like Tali but he instead put a hand out and gently stopped me.

"Ty, you need to wake up. This isn't real. I can't hold this connection for long. Pleas-"

… I was sitting in what looked like an interview room for a brightly colored and very drab office complex. The exact same one as before and this time, someone came out of the door in front of me and took a seat across the table. The man was very suave but looked like someone I knew.

He straightened his tie and got some papers in line before setting them down on the table and looking across at me. "Hello, Ty, my name is John Shepard. I will be conducting your interview today."

I tried to remember who he was but I felt my memories somehow draining from my skull leaving me to act my part in the interview. "Thank you sir, as you can see by my resume, I am over qualified for the position."

He looked through a few of the papers before leaning back in his chair. "Okay, it looks here like you are qualified but I am seeing some notes here. Mind if I read them off to you?"

"Notes… Uh, why yes sir. Please."

He cleared his throat and began. "Lack of faith in others, trouble receiving and responding to orders given from a higher personnel, and finally does not play well with others. Your resume gives me reasons to hire you and to fire you and I have to say that the firing is a lot more convincing right now."

I began to panic and reached for the paper. "No sir, I don't believe I wrote those notes on there and I just printed this out today."

He turned it around and showed that the notes were written in a blood red ink that was glowing. "These are notes from your past co-workers. They are gonna follow you everywhere."

I looked down at my feet and gripped my knees. "I can change."

"Can you? People with this background generally don't change." He stood up and the room lit on fire, causing fear to shoot through my veins. "I'm sorry, but I can't use someone like you in this office."

I stood up and my memory began to flood back. "Shepard, John! Wait!"

He stepped out and closed the door before I could get to it making a locking sound and keeping me out. The fire began to rage and the heat began to get to me as I got up and leaped over the desk to the door. Taking the knob in hand, I began yanking on it to no avail as it became stone.

"Damn it, I don't deserve this! I'm human, I… I made a mistake!" I bashed against the door again but this time, it changed to a giant door.

The heat stayed but the fire disappeared, followed by water that went half way up my ankle. The feeling reminded me of one place I had managed to keep my mind of until now. Just one look into a partly cloudy blue sky showed that it was Virmire.

After a quick whiff, I caught the heavy stench of rotting and charred bodies that made me just want to throw up. Just with my peripherals, I could smell death in the air but what happened next is what scared me.

I turned around and saw half of what was Kaidan's body that was terribly burned. He seemed to have both side though as he began to walk forward even with one leg. Fear had gripped me completely as I pressed myself against the door.

He reached out his hand and placed it to the right of my face. "Why didn't you try and save me?"

I looked him in the eye and say that though he was a dead body and looked like he was so burned that no water would be near him, tears were in his eye. Before I could get away, I felt something tighten around my neck.

**Shepard:**

John sat in a chair, surrounded by clouds and open areas just relaxing. Forget the Council, forget the Geth and forget the Reapers. John was done with it all. He finally got his chance to rest with no worries.

Sitting back, John just let it all go just… relaxing.

"Getting a bit lazy, aren't you Shepard?"

His eyes shot open and he saw the first person he'd seen in a year-and-a-half and it was a young woman with sandy blonde hair that had a slight curl to it. She was standing over him like a mother angry at her child for slacking off. He shook his head and kept laying where he was.

"Didn't you here? I'm dead. Got no responsibilities now."

He felt the wind get forced out of him by her foot going to his chest. "Listen up, dickwad! My boyfriend got captured by the Collectors and your ass is the only one that can save him."

He pushed her leg off him and stepped up to her. "Listen lady, I died. I suffocated in space while falling to a planet."

She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "John, just listen to me. You are going to be coming back to life."

"Yeah, and you're going to do that with your magical powers." He joked though what room he had in a basic version of heaven he didn't know.

"Okay, I know it sounds crazy but Cerberus is working right now to bring you back."

"Hahahahaha, with how many of their people I killed before kicking the bucket myself, that has to be a load of crap. Even if they were going to bring me back, I have been dead for at least a year and a half. How I know that I do not know." He said, calling her bluff.

"Okay fine, if you were to come back to life. Ty, is going to need your help."

"And you lost me yet again with the whole 'the asshole who knew everything about your story didn't tell needs your help.'"

She grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up above her head with strength she shouldn't have had. "Listen up, Ty isn't a bad person, he's just trying to do what he thought was best. Just forget it, it's something you can talk through. something you need to talk about. He can be a huge asset to your fight but you haven't utilized him correctly."

"Utilize? Lady, I don't think you can comprehend what he can do. Let alone me."

She crossed her arms and huffed. "Then start with the basic stuff. Just a bit of guidance and he will stop being a hindrance. Point him in the direction you want him to attack instead of having him improvise. It will be easy but right now or at least when you wake up."

"Yeah, what has he gotten himself in to?"

She looked off and hesitated for a moment. "Ty was captured by the collectors and they have been doing… experiments on him, if you can call them that, for the last year-and-a-half. His mind… it's like… I don't even know. The only person I have been in contact with is saying that he doesn't have much time."

"Much time before what?" Shepard asked, the gravity of what she was saying was turning their conversation from quips and jokes to something that it shouldn't be when talking about ty. Serious.

"If they crack him… we are looking at something worse than Saren, the Collectors, or the Reapers. We are looking at someone with the potential to destroy planets going rogue. He will go crazy… well, crazier than he was. Any care he took before, gone. Oh, this planet is a puke green? He blows up the planet because he didn't like it. Who the hell know what else. Imagine a crazy god and that will be Ty. You are the only one that can make him stable again. Tear down the barrier that he put between you two and try."

John looked down into the girls eyes and nodded his head. "Alright, hypothetically, if I do come back to life then I will try. Just in case I have to tell someone about this. What is your name?"

She just gave him a thankful smile. "Layla."

**~I'm in the story. Finally, I can get shit done the right way.~**

**^Yeah, and I am having horrific nighmates that are probably a result of some horrific mindbreaking torture.^**

**S7: Maybe, maybe not. Point is, has the audience checked out Tango Squad?**

**~Hold on there cowboy, I finally get in the story and you wanna talk about a story that you are just uploading that was written a few months ago?! That's not fair!~**

**S7: All is fair in Love and Writing. Anyway, I just wanted everyone to go check it out and let me know what you think. Guess which character I wrote.**

**^I will give you a hint, it isn't the one that Trebor wrote.^**

**~What about me? I'm interesting and cool and- **133710V3I2 has been logged off by host.

**S7: Whoops, my bad, my finger slipped.**

**^Okay, so what is the story about?^**

**S7: Four soldiers in the reaper war. Dealing with their own shit and having a good time.**

**^So, it's like a Seinfeld with soldiers?^**

**S7: Eh, kinda and kinda not. I wouldn't say it's pointless but there is a lot of character interaction along with action.**

**^How many words are we looking at?^**

**S7: Eh, a lot. It was written by Trebor117, JustAFerret, and SergiustheGreat for the first chapter. Any other info? You need to go read the story. Alright, time to head-'em-up and move-'em-out.**

**^Wow, you are seriously going to use that as your sign off now?^**

**S7: No, that was my way of saying that it is time to wrap things up. Remember, questions are answered every five chapters on my fics. Thus, you have two chapters to ask. Also, for those of you hoping for Prime to get updated, that will be every Thursday.**


	4. You Can (Not) Escape

**Ty:**

I was cold. Just cold. Not like a dying cold, don't know how I know that, or a emotional cold but cold. I was physically cold.

_What the hell? I can't open my eyes?!_

I brought my hands up, though they were stiff and almost froze, up to my eyes. There was some sort of gunk on them that had frozen there. I ran my nails over it and it peeled right off allowing me to look around and take in my surroundings.

First, after realizing that I was laying in one place as it snowed, I sat up. Snow poured off me in layers and revealed that I was in the tattered remains of my colossus armor. My left arm was completely exposed while the right has fully sleeved. further down, my chest and abdomen were exposed and unexposed so my chest was fine but my belly or lack there of was completely exposed.

My eyes widened when I looked down at my stomach and saw almost nothing was there. It was like I hadn't eaten in two years. Come to think of it, the last thing I remembered was the Normandy crashing.

I put my hand up to my face to rub it when I saw that my arm was basically skin with some bone underneath. forcing myself onto my stomach was hard and I tried to lift myself up unsuccessfully. Everything was stiff and I couldn't bend my legs enough to get them under me.

To my dismay, that meant I would have to crawl like a dog to the nearest cover, which was one of those weird cubicle houses about fifty yards away. Slowly, I crawled forward for what felt like forever and the fact that the ground was snowy and cold didn't help. Eventually, I managed to get there and crawl up the stairs.

I tired to stand again using the railing for support but my feet wouldn't catch and I ended up falling flat on my ass against the rail. My eyes drifted from my dying skeletal body to the door, widening as the panel moved into the open position.

The door swung open and I saw something that brought a smile to my face, no matter how hard and stiff my face felt. That smile only faded into heartbreak and sadness as memories came flooding into my brain. A tear would have come to my eye at that point if it wasn't for my body feeling especially dry enough to not even constitute a tear.

"Ty!" Layla asked stepping through the door and kneeling by me.

Opening my mouth, I attempted to reply but to no avail. _What's keeping me alive?_

She reached behind my back and under my legs, picking me up with greater ease than the hay bales back at her parents farm. She took me into the room and sat be down at a table with pills, food and lots of water across it.

She took a glass of water off the table and slipped a straw into it. "You're probably wondering how I got all this set up and knew you were outside."

_That is the furthest thing from my mind, right now._

Putting the straw into my mouth she made it to where I could begin drinking. To which I did, I began drinking it so fast that the water glass was empty almost as soon as I could drink it. After, that, She pulled the glass away and filled it with a pitcher on the table.

"I'm here because you needed me and I managed to slip by Chakwas. She wants you to think that I am evil and trying to get you to give your world away but I'm not. Though, I suppose this isn't the best time to be talking to you about this stuff." She waved her hand over a closet, making it fling open.

Inside it was a set of Inferno armor about my size, painted black primary and a red tribal inferno pattern over it on the arms and legs. Next to that, was a Mattock and a Phalanx both of which were my favorite guns to use in Mass Effect 2. Then again, they were all weapons and armor that I had my Shepard use ninety-nine percent of the time, so Layla might have just gone on and looked at what I usually picked.

"I got you the armor because it has motorized joints that will help you with moving and the guns… well, lets just say I wasn't always ignoring you when you were talking with your buddies about all the stuff you liked about Mass Effect 2."

I looked weakly at her and then down at the food and stuffs in front of me.

She reached over and placed a hand on my chest, making a thin, transparent layer of matrix code falling down my body. "This will repair your body for a short time as you exert yourself. It won't get you to where you were but enough that you can function."

"It… can…?" I managed to say, realizing that the program was already working.

"Put the armor on when you are ready. I have to go now, I can feel the AI's eyes watching me. I'm going to get removed any moment." She cut there and faded into nothing.

I reached out toward where she was and clumsily swatted at the air, just checking if she was invisible or really gone. It only took two swipes but I sure she was gone after that. It took a little bit after that but I began to be able to make simple movements after an hour. At that point, I began stuffing my face as hunger really began to creep up on me.

Three hours later, the code viel wore off and I was able to stand up and move around. I had gotten well enough at this point that putting on the armor seemed doable.

It took thirty-minutes for me to put on the armor and once it was all in place, the Zero in my chest began to burn putting itself right between my pectoral muscles in the armor. I felt the robotic joints kick in and finally, I felt slightly like my old self.

The only problem was something of obvious annoyance to me, just looking in a mirror I could see I had rats nest for hair and beard. I went into the bathroom and looked at my face. The hair looked like it was hastily cut quite a few times. As for the beard, it didn't look much better.

Just the look prompted me to begin searching through cabinets and cupboards until I found a comb and scissors. I looked at them and noticed that they were fairly simple looking compared to everything else.

_Way to make it obvious that these are here so I can fix myself Chakwas._

I flipped out the scissors and began cutting off as much hair as I could until it hung about an inch and a half from my scalp and was halfway decent. Next was the beard, It was cut in a jagged way that made it look like they took a saw to it several times. I took several cuts at it until it was short enough that it wouldn't get in the way of anything but still, I wasn't too fond of it.

The search began again as I looked around for anything that I could use as a razor or at least an electric one. Everywhere I looked was empty and I was dissuaded by the cold to go to a new place and have a look around there. That meant I was trapped until something happened or the sun rose.

It wasn't the best of circumstances but it wasn't the worst that I could be in. _Least it isn't the Collector ship._

That thought sparked a chain of memories, yet at the same time it was very vivid dreams. My hand gripped my throat when I remembered Shepard choking me and then again at my chest when I remembered Tali and her shotgun. The memories stopped there and rage filled my blood and mind.

Tali, I wouldn't have experienced that if it hadn't been for her barring me from joining them on the escape pod. My fists grew tight and my jaw clenched making a heat, rise in my belly. I brought my fist up to punch something or anything, whichever was closer.

Something seemed to grab me then and it felt like I was being pulled to my right. In direct contrast, the sudden pull scared me enough that I began pulling left, trying to break whatever was taking me. I was it by a splitting headache that moved all the way down my left side and slowly began to let go from my head and chest all the way to my foot and hand. Once it was done and I successfully pulled away, I felt better.

My anger was gone, I felt good, great in fact. Everything felt clearer to me, it was like I could see everything without my rage getting in the way. A small smile came to my face and I turned around.

The smile quickly left as I saw myself in a complete rage, looking at me like I-er he was about to kill me. I brought my hand up, open palmed and held it between us. If he made a move, I could fire off a datapurge from my hand and knock him back pretty far.

His fist untightened and he held both his hands up at me, red zeroes appearing in his palm to launch off a datapurge of his own. Opening his mouth, he looked like I did before making a snarky remark but it looked like the words caught in his throat or something. The angry me's hand went up to his throat and he got infuriated.

I kept up my hand but felt a tinge of sorrow for him. "You can't speak?"

He tightened his fist and took a swing at me, catching my cheek and knocking me back. I had to lash out and grab the table to keep my balance and right myself. Before I could stand up fully, the copy put his foot in my back and kicked me so I flew onto and flipped the table, covering me in the food and drink on it.

I wasn't even able to push the table off me as the enraged version of me stepped on it and began applying enough pressure that it felt hard to breath. There wasn't much that I could think to do and instead. I began running my mouth with whatever came to mind.

"Gosh, now I know what that song under pressure is about… Just a question, why are you angry at me? I'm you and I wasn't angry at me. I guess I was angry at Tali but we don't see her until Free...dom's… progress!"

He began applying pressure at the last part but pulled off at the last part, thinking what I was.

"If you know what I know, then we are more than likely on Freedom's progress and if we are… Tali is here as well." The pressure released but the table didn't lift up. "Are you letting me up or are you just getting something heavy?"

The table wiggled a bit and then was lifted off me to be thrown across the room. Right above me, my own embodiment of rage was begrudgingly holding his hand out to me. I took it and he hoisted me up a lot easier than I could have in my current state.

I looked at him a bit and walked around him, he was almost an exact copy, the only difference being that his blacks were very black and his reds were very red. Almost like the inky black and crimson red essence of my corruption made him. He stood straight and let me examine him before crossing his arms and huffing when I took too long.

"Okay, we can't go calling you Ty. If you're me, I'm guessing rage isn't going to be something you'll settle for."

He rolled his eyes and looked at the ground. Something caught his eye and he picked up a knife off the ground. He waved it in the air in a grand gesture like he was trying to say something. Sadly, his message didn't transfer across.

I reached up and pinched the bridge of my nose. "Oh boy, this is going to take a while."

**Shepard:**

"Shepard, wake up!"

John's eyes fluttered a bit before opening and immediately shutting thanks to the light. His arm went over his eyes to block the light as he forced himself up. There was a voice that was screaming at him in panic but his ears weren't quite adjusted yet so it all sounded like babble and gargle.

His ears managed to adjust in time to hear the important part. "-your armor and a weapon is in a locker across the room- get it!"

John stumbled forward and grabbed the locker. He was still woozy but he managed to click the button to open it. The usual ding rang out and the locker opened only an inch, not near enough to let him get at the contents inside. He came to the conclusion he would have to pry it open quick and put his fingers in the opening.

It felt like opening a jar as it only needed a little force before it popped open. Inside was N7 armor but it looked too small to be his and too angular. Almost like it was a complete redesign of the original outfit. After a second of contemplation, a nearby explosion brought him to his senses and he was throwing on all the armor on within a few seconds.

Once it was all in place, he took the pistol in his right hand and began moving. He started through the door that the explosion had opened and rounded a corner before coming face to face with a defense mech. a small smile came to his face and he raised his hand to it, but it quickly dissipated as the mech took aim at him.

He ducked to cover and dodged the mechs first shots before coming up and pulling the trigger. His weapon made a dissatisfying hisss and began coughing out heat. Following that, John ducked and cursed at the fact he forgot about the stupid thermal clip system.

Looking around he saw a nearby clip and locked it into his weapon. Once it was all good, he dove from cover and took the head off the mech in one shot. It exploded, Getting the notice of another mech on top of the stairs that John accurately gave the same fate as the previous mech.

John marched his way up the stairs and found a grenade launcher on the corpse of some guy in white, black and yellow military gear. He didn't have time to examine the gear and scooped up the launcher as a crowd of mechs were coming in on the lower bridge entrance. One quick volley from the launcher dispatched the lot of them but also punctured a hole in a nearby gas vent and lit it on fire.

Letting out a prayer, John leaped over the side of the railing and fell to the platform where the droids were. He landed with a lot more easy than he thought he would, immediately noticing the elevator next door. Without even a second of regret, he moved forward toward gun fire and shouting down the hall.

Shepard was graced with the sight of a man fighting mechs from across a gape in the structures. After a moment of contemplation, John rose up and fired his volleys across the trench and downing them all. The man looked around and grew wide eyed when he saw Shepard but recomposed himself, stowing his weapon in the process.

"Shepard? Where the hell did you come from?"

John kept his weapon out but stayed appearance. "I just woke up, you know more than I know. Wanna fill me in?"

"First off, my name is Jacob. This here is a facility dedicated to Project Lazarus. It's-"

"Yeah yeah yeah, I think I can pick up what it means thanks to the term Lazarus and the fact that I ain't dead anymore. I'm not dead anymore. Are there any other test candidates that they were trying to bring back?"

"No, far as I know, the project had one subject and only one. You."

John ran his hand over his head taking everything in, of everything in his mind and all the questions he had, one rang out. "Where is Ty?"

"Ty? Uh, I'm not aware of a Ty in the staff here, nor in your old crew. Is he a friend or... a lover or-"

"No, no no no no no no no no. He's my responsibility." Shepard corrected him. "Yeah, no nothing happening there like that. It's just, he's… powerful and unstable."

"Well, I'm sure if he is in the universe then we can find him." He said reassuringly before looking over, noticing the door open. "Further questions can wait. We have company. Before they get a chance to attack, you should know-"

John pulled the grenade launcher off and blasted the group, eliminating them all. "I want answers and I don't have time for interruptions. Who can give them to me?"

"That would be Miranda" He pointed toward the nearest door. "She is on the-"

John took off walking through the hallways shooting every mech that crossed his path. At one point, they were called by someone named Wilson but John was too busy bulldozing a path to listen to anything but that he was in some room that controlled the mechs and he shouldn't be there.

Not long after that, John stepped into a room and came across someone still alive. By Jacob's reaction, he assumed that it was Wilson.

"Wilson, so you are alive then…"

As they talked, John walked over and grabbed the medigel out of the nearby medical crate. _Why the hell would that idiot leave this over here instead of crawling over to it. Not like any mechs are around._

Over to his left, he saw a crate that was blocking their path. From the look of it and the crate could be triggered with an electrical surge or a shot from his grenade launcher but he'd rather conserve the ammo. He glanced back between Jacob and Wilson.

"Hey, either of you got overload?"

"I'm vanguard class, only ammo powers and biotics." Jacob answered.

"I have some engineering abilities. Overload being one of them." Wilson commented.

John loaded up the medigel and walked over to him. "Good news then, you get to get back on your feet and help us."

He applied the medigel and Wilson struggled his way up. "Whatever can get me away from those mechs and off this station."

"Okay, hit that crate with an overload and we can get moving." John ordered and Wilson followed suit.

The rest of the fights and work, blurred together as John repeated the same process as before. All headshots, almost to the point he was wondering if he was getting lucky or something else was going on. Whatever it was, John would worry about it second, An itching fear of the girl that visited him in death was his only concern as of right now.

Once all the mechs were finished off and they had found their way into a shuttle bay, Wilson took the lead. He brought them to a door and began typing in a code.

"The shuttles right this way, once on it we can- Miranda? You were-" The woman in a white catsuit on the other side shot him in the head and held a disgusted look on her face.

"Dead?"

Jacob rushed over in horror and disbelief. "What the hell are you doing?"

"My job. Wilson betrayed us all."

John's pistol was aimed right at Miranda but he wasn't too inclined to pull the trigger. "You must be Miranda."

"Yes, I am and-"

"Look, I'm on a bit of a time constraint here and-"

A familiar voice came echoing from down by the shuttle. "Shepard? Holly shit, totally spaced that he was waking up today!"

John looked behind Miranda and cocked his head to the side. "Is that… Danny?"

Danny came from around the corner looking overjoyed. "Alright, John's back? How you been over the last two years… wait a second, nevermind that question. You have been dead. Guess you haven't really done anything. Well, I guess you wanna know what happened to me then, right?"

"Danny?" John asked, still in shock that it was this easy to find one of the Users.

"I'll take that as a yes." He ran over and put his arms around Jacob and Shepard. "So, there I was, kicking ass and taking names and then giving said names to other people who's asses I was kicking. Anyway, I had just thrown my previous scheduler out a window when the hottest woman in the universe came to my door." He gestured over to Miranda. "So, then we went off and I joined Cerberus. Together, our plan was to rescue you and stop-"

Shepard broke Danny's grip and aimed his pistol at Jacob and Miranda. "The hell, they are cerberus!?"

"Calm down, they have been instructed to listen to you." Danny answered, casually getting in the way of John's gun.

His expression hardened. "I spent months, searching for and eliminating their outposts and they brought me back? Yeah, probably a control chip in my brain or some shit like that."

"John, chill, you got me and Cody to get that thing out of you, if there was one. Well, I guess Cody is in the alliance now and he stopped calling me so… you still have me."

His gun didn't even drop a millimeter. "Where's Ty?"

Danny pulled a small flask out and took a swig of it, holding it out to John. "You may need a bit of this for the next part."

He didn't touch it.

"Okay, well, the news about Ty is… He was kinda captured by the Collectors during the raid on the Normandy."

"Collectors? Wait, he was captured? How the hell did that happen?"

Shepard saw a tinge of anger actually surface in Danny's face before it faded. "Someone, didn't let him on the escape pod. Luckily, Miranda here has some great news on him. Don't you Miranda?"

She crossed her arms, obviously pissed at his words. "Our sensors picked up an IFF for a one Andrew Shepard. Now, based on our knowledge. That is Ty's IFF. In other words. We found him on the last place that the Collectors where. On Freedom's Progress."

"He'll be there unless the Collector's cut his arm off and threw it there to screw with you." Jacob answered, cynically.

"Jacob, harshing the big surprise dude. Not cool." Danny said, looking like he was scolding the guy. "If you want people to like you, then for god's sake, allow them to enjoy hope."

John sighed and lowered the gun. "Alright, get me to Freedom's Progress."

"We just need to make a slight detour and then we will head there." Miranda answered, moving toward the shuttle.

John thought twice before taking a step to the shuttle. All in all, he was in no way, happy to be back.

**S7: Alright, this is officially the longest Users Chapter yet.**

**^Oh, yeah. 4,000 words. Totally. You know, I feel like you have written longer but looking back. I only see like 3,500.^**

**~What about Users in a World of Fiction?~**

**^What? Was that a version where I wasn't in it? Is it like Danny's adventure though fictional universes or something?^**

**S7: No and that doesn't count because it was a collab.**

**^A collab? What no name author would write with you? Seriously, you only got one review last chapter.^**

**S7: You know, I am just going to leave that because I'm not supposed to tell you about it.**

**~By the way, is Trebor and them gonna visit?~**

**S7: Eh, I figure they can visit after we're invited over. I don't like to be the one to make the first move.**

**~No wonder you waited half a year to ask out your girlfriend.~**

**S7: Shut up, she is a different story.**

**~Okay, okay. I'll leave it alone. But maybe you should ask them over first. It's like inviting someone to dinner. Unless you make the first invite then you are eating alone forever.~**

**^Yeah, eating alone is a bad idea. You could choke and no one would be there to save you.^**

**S7: Eh, maybe in a chapter where something that happens would matter to them. Anyway, I am not feeling like a long author's note but then again. I still enjoy these unlike some people I know. Yeah, I see you in the corner of the string. Skipping an A/N. Who do you think you are?**

**^Anyway, remember, next chapter is the Q and A so leave a Q so we can hand out some As. After all, everyone likes As.^**

**S7: And we are out of here. Layla?**

**~1473I2.~**

**S7: Oh, you bitch!**


	5. You Are (Not) Blessed

**Danny:**

Danny sat checking his assault rifle, making sure everything was good for Freedom's Progress. Though, he had to face it, it wasn't like his weapons was going to malfunction since it was just data but it still felt real. He looked over at Jacob staring out of the window and then Miranda on her computer. Both of which were completely on edge, most likely because this was what they had been preparing for.

John came up the stairs after talking to the Illusive Man and looked slightly less displeased then Danny would have guessed he would be. Then again, Danny was fighting a laugh as he saw that Shepard made his primary color green and didn't change his secondary color.

Jacob looked back and stifled a laugh. "Good to see you are ready, Captain Watermelon."

John stopped short in surprise, looked down and then back up at them keeping a serious look. "That's commander watermelon."

Danny, Jacob and Shepard all began laughing at the retort but Miranda had to be the usual stick in the mud. "Can we please take this seriously?"

John coughed and straightened up. "You're right, the Illusive Man said that you would be taking me to Freedom's Progress like I already told you to take me to."

"Don't worry Shepard, we will get you there and you can find this... Ty, you have been looking for."

"If I don't put a bullet in his brain that is." Miranda commented under her breath but loud enough for everyone to hear.

They all looked at her and John look at her almost agreeing with her but something stopped him and made his face go stone cold. "Just get me to Freedom's Progress. ASAP."

Not long after that they all piled into a shuttle, Danny took the front seat next to the pilot and gave him the go ahead. A short while later and one Mass Relay jump, they were landing on Freedom's Progress prompting Danny to step in the back and grab his gear.

"So, who's ready to freeze our asses off in the cold?"

John chuckled as he finished placing his weapons. "Can't be any worse than Noveria. That place is the galaxy's icebox. Anything you wish to add before we land Miranda?"

"Nothing I think you would care about or pay attention to."

He nodded and Danny got the door, releasing everyone into the cold air. There was no immediate danger and that prompted Danny to stay on high alert. If there was anything that Danny had learned with the virus hunting after him is it likes to try and lure him into a false sense of security.

All four of them moved forward lightening fast and made their way into the first shack. He was expecting to see the usual scenery but it was, better kept. The only sign that people had been there was poptart wrappers and a few juice packs.

"Strange...no bodies or signs of battle." Miranda muttered.

"Not even a spent thermal clip lying around." Jacob agreed. "Like a bad horror vid or something."

The door at the other end opened up as they made their way through

revealing two forms, both in armor and ponchos but one was wearing a hood while the other was using a helmet. One had dead mech parts under his arms while the other had a sack of some sort swung over his shoulder. Jacob and Miranda moved quicker then Danny or Shepard since they both already had drawn their weapons.

"Put your hands where we can see them." Miranda said warningly.

The two figures looked at each other before shaking with what looked like laughter, yet neither of them made a sound.

Jacob backed up slightly so he was behind Miranda. "Uh, Shepard? Don't suppose you want to say something here?"

Danny looked to John and saw that John was hesitating. "Ty?"

Both of them looked at each other before one of them took his hood off and nodded.

Rushing forward Danny threw his arms around Ty in a hug and lifted him up in the air. "Hells yeah! No fucking hive of bugs can stop you, you crazy motherfucker."

"Thanks Danny, but I am over here." The one with the helmet commented while removing it, showing he was indeed Ty… also?

Danny dropped the first Ty and stepped back, looking between the two of them then back at the stunned group. "I swear, I have no idea what is going on here."

"One must be an imposter of some sort." Jacob muttered to the others.

Danny saw John's hand come up with a pistol in it and aimed between the two Tys. "Okay, what the hell is going on here?"

The one that previously had the hood on look like his was getting angry and restless but the other one stepped in front of him. "Look, I escaped the collector's clutches but not in one piece. This guy is my rage, anger, and general pissed off feeling. I call him Rage because he refuses any other suggestion and it's the easiest to remember for his personality."

Rage looked away and pulled the sack a little higher up on his shoulder.

John lowered his gun but kept it in hand. "Ty, one of you is difficult enough to deal with and if I didn't meet Lia or Lela or something like that. I probably wouldn't be too happy to see you."

Ty sighed and shrugged. "What do you want from me? I'm trying to change now. I was just tortured for a few years because I wasn't the best person."

Rage through down the mech parts in front of them all.

"Rage and I have been taking care off all the problems along the way. There is a clear pass to… a place that Rage can't go to."

Flinging his arms out, Rage grabbed Ty and smashed him against the wall.

Ty grabbed Rage's hands and pulled them back. "Stop it Rage, you can't kill her! We need to change."

Rage began to shake violently tightening his grip but let Ty drop and grabbed the helmet off the ground. After brushing it off, he placed the helmet on and crossed his arms, starting out the door.

"Well, something tells me he's a little too angry." Danny answered, clasping his hands together.

"He has the _incredibly _imaginative name of 'rage' and you needed that display to pick up on that fact?" Miranda said with a half-sigh.

Ty looked at Miranda. "Rage won't take kindly to you talking like that Miranda. I don't wanna be between him and you because if I know my rage. It won't be stopped."

"Then you better get it under control because we all need to work together." John said, stepping past Miranda and patting Ty on the shoulder. "Despite everything. It is kinda good seeing you… did you lose weight?"

"Pretty sure I did." Ty laughed and walked off into the cold, leaving Jacob, Danny and Miranda standing surprised.

"...Did I fall asleep on the shuttle and this is just a weird dream?" Jacob asked blankly.

Danny looked at him and smiled. "Welcome to team User. This here is the usual."

"Lovely." Miranda snarked.

They continued on through the empty and hollow settlement, scorch marks and metal everywhere that Ty and Rage had taken care of robots. Progress moved faster than expected, seeing as all the bots that would have given them trouble were in pieces. Eventually, they arrived outside the shack that housed Tali, seeing Rage typing code after code into the doors panel unable to open it.

Ty pushed Rage off to the side and made room for John. "Give it up man. I am the one with the tech skills. You got… the drive."

John began hacking the door and Ty held Rage back as best he could and as soon as the door opened three quarians were up and had their guns trained on them.

"Stop right there!" The one in front shouted, finger on the trigger of his gun.

Another quarian rushed past him, stepping between them. "Prazza, you said you'd let me handle this!" She glanced over and did a double take. "Shepard? Danny? Ty?!"

"I'm not taking any chances with Cerberus scum!"

Danny saw what happened next in slow motion as Rage broke Ty's grip and pushed past everyone. He grabbed Prazza by the helmet and fired off a datapurge that knocked him into another quarian. After that, he had Tali by the mask and lifted her up into the air for all to see.

He began to strain to say something anything and to everyone's surprise did. "You said… you weren't taking me… This… is… karma!"

He brought his hand back and started to throw her into a table but got shot in the back by Ty, Danny and Shepard at once. Not only did it stop Rage but Ty dropped to the ground, clutching his back and screaming.

"Ah, fuck! That hurts!" Ty said, falling to all fours.

Tali punched Rage in the face, making him drop her, and rolled behind cover, grabbing a shotgun from the table nearby as well. Rage leaped out and took the shotgun from Tali, breaking it with his hands.

She was surprisingly fast, grabbing the knife from her boot and slashing at him with it, even as she activated her omni-tool with her other hand, deploying a combat drone behind him. A gold aura formed around rages fist and he punched into the combat drone, making it fizzle and turn green. After that, it turned toward everyone and began spouting a warning. "Stand back, police work in progress."

"Police work my ass." Ty said from the ground. "Danny, get him!"

Danny looked at Ty, knowing that whatever he did to Rage, Ty would feel it. Right now, it wasn't about hurting Ty though, it was stopping Rage. He focused on the gun in his hand and transformed it into a fusion rifle from Destiny. He pulled the trigger, starting up the gun and making Rage look back in horror.

The shots rang out and Rage lifted up into the air dissipating into nothing before a green glow from Ty caught everyone's attention. He stood up shaking but in a sense was fine. He looked around at everyone and wipe his forehead of sweat.

"I feel angry, again." He said in jest before giving Tali a piercing stare and walking out the next door.

John looked back at Jacob and Miranda, and with a smile said, "Welcome to the team guys."

"...What the hell just happened." The two said at the same time as Tali.

John looked around at Tali's team. "An explanation can wait until I get that, right now… Tali, why are you here?"

She looked a little hesitant but then looked into Shepard's eyes and nodded. "There is a quarian that chose to have his Pilgrimage here, Veetor. He… he's hurt and probably has a bad suit filter. Best I can guess, he is delusional and using the mech security system to defend himself.

"That would explain why Ty was clearing out mechs." John started forward. "We'll move to his location. YOu get your team and move another. That way, any mechs that are ahead will be split up to attack both teams."

"Yes, because I am sure my team that has been injured by Ty will be a match for an army."

John and the others left, leaving Danny to awkwardly walk past all the quarians. "WEll, uh, welcome to team User everyone. Our ice cream social is still TBA but I will let y'all know when we do. Again, go team User."

He stepped out and saw Ty sitting in a corner holding his head and having a some sort of a meltdown. He was reciting something but it was in a sort of horrific dream that he experienced. Something about his own father choking him and his only savior being… Saren!

**S7: Alright, I tried to make this longer but the Shepard and Ty parts are gonna have to wait until next time.**

**^What's your excuse?^**

**~Destiny?~**

**S7: Destiny. Alright, lets get this Q and A done and then start writing the next chapter while I can keep this mojo going.**

**^Question one: is Layla's mind wiped?^**

**~Nope, I just hopped universes without going through that intermission bullshit that Ty and Bourne did.~**

**^Who?^**

**S7: Don't worry about it. **

**^Okay, looks like that is is for the chapter.^**

**S7: M'kay. Leave a review after you read the chapter. LEt me know how you are feeling thus far. Oh, and I am gonna restart up Prime. It's gonna be a Thursday release now. Anything to add Ty?**

**^I'm tied so 1473I2.^**


	6. You are (Not) One of Us

**Ty:**

Everything was a total blur, everyone around me was twisting, growing then shrinking, like looking through someone's glasses that had astigmatism. All the while, I remembered horrifying dreams that I had while on the collector ship from Shepard and my father choking me at six years old to being tortured in hell by some psycho Shepard. Everything, making sweat and tears pour from my body as I shook violently.

Then, like a seizure it went away and I was fine besides being very cold from sweating in the cold. I couldn't remember anything about my dreams, nor anything about the ship. The dreams and memories, they all went fleeting away and I lost them.

I looked around and saw John, and Danny kneeling by me. John looked like he was ready for anything to happen while Danny on the other hand, was taking constantly, trying to help in any way he can. I shook my head and pushed both of them away and struggled to my feet, leaning my broken ass against the railing.

"Shot myself in the back and a mental breakdown. Not a bad day considering what else I went through this week." I said, trying to lighten the mood.

John got to his feet and removed his assault rifle from his back. "Ty, I want you to hang back. Danny, scout forward and use that…" He gestured at the gun Danny made. "Thing and blow some of these drones away."

Danny checked his rifle and nodded taking off ahead of the group. As soon as he was gone, Miranda opened her mouth to protest but Jacob was the first to speak.

"You know, we have been working with that guy for a few months now. How is it we have never seen him do that before?"

John helped me up and pulled his rifle off his back. "Ask him later and get moving. The sooner we get to this Veetor, the sooner we can have a chat about what's going on."

I snatched my pistol off my side and followed Shepard, my strength returning to me. We moved forward, seeing wreckage created by Danny and any god forsaken robot that got in his way. The pieces lead us all the way to a door that Danny was sitting against, messing with his rifle and tweaking nobs before he saw us and stood up.

He pointed at the door and the four of us heard screaming and firing from behind it. I could easily guess what came next as Tali came in over our comm. "Shepard, Prazza's squad ran ahead, they were trying to get to Veetor before you got here but there is a Ymir Mech in the way. It's tearing his squad apart."

I pointed at the door. "She can open the door, they are just on the oter side."

John nodded and called to Tali. "Alright, open the door and we will head in and take care of it."

"Right, get your squad ready." She said, before cutting the link.

I pulled my pistol off my hip and readied it. "This is gonna be awesome."

The door opened and I ran through, the mech wasn't like I had remembered from the games. This one had two extra arms sticking out ot it's back that were holding a large crate above it. It turned and fired off a volley of rockets out of both it's hands, destroying the quarians that were running before turning to me.

I had one look at it's face before Danny tackled me into cover and looked at me, freaking out. "Do you know what that is?"

I gripped my pistol tighter and started to get up. "Uh, definitely not the Ymir mech from the game. Why did it have a zero for an eye?"

Danny swallowed and got to the edge of his cover, peaking around. "It has been touched by the virus. The same one that Saren had but it's been evolving. Though, I have never seen it do anything like his to someone."

Closing my eyes, I set my resolve to take down the robot and stood up, ready for anything. The robot turned toward me and stepped out, spreading his stance, challenging me. Circling, I moved to the left slowly, waiting for him to make a move but neither of us attacked.

Instead, Shepard took charge and hit the mech in the face with five grenades. I followed it up by pulling up my pistol and firing shots as fast as possible, the satisfying view of it's health assuring me that I was doing damage.

It took a second but the mech recouped itself and threw the box it was holding at me and I dove out of the way. The box slammed next to me and stopped me from having any cover to dive into. I was ass-out in the open and the mech was walking toward me, it's two extra arms extending out like you would if you trapped an animal and didn't want it escaping.

I began to play scared, backing up into the corner until he was close enough and I was sure that he couldn't dodge. Closing my eyes, I focused on starcraft armor and activated my ability. I felt my body rise and my armor morph until I was just as tall as the mech and ready to deal some damage.

Letting fist fly, I punched forward, slamming my hands into the mechs head knocking it silly so that it couldn't get a good read on me. Still, it was able to catch my right hand and pull it off to the side before unleashing it's own blows with its extra arm. After three hit, I saw a crack forming down the center of my helmet. I didn't have much time and id the first thing that came to mind.

I reached out and grabbed the mechs head with one hand, giving it a good yank. The mech made a disgruntled sound and pulled me closer, more than likely, in hopes that I wouldn't be able to make another pull. It didn't work as I gave it another pull, this time separating tons of wiring but not yet able to remove the head.

In one last effort to stop me, the mech reached out and tried to grab my other arm but I caught it by it's wrist and pulled that to it's own head, making it grab itself. After that, I gave it a quick yank, popping it's head off with its own hand.

The body of the mech fell forward on top of me and with the added weight of extra arms, the mech turned out to be too heavy and I was caught under it. It pinned me to the ground in death and I wasn't able to move it off. I laid there and let my arms fall to the side, angry from my failure to stop myself from getting crushed.

Shepard was the first to walk up and look at my situation. "Well, looks like you may have lost a step or two over the last two years."

"You think?" I asked, sarcastically.I felt something take hold of my from behind and I looked around. "What is that?"

"It's me", Danny said over the comm. "Just shut down your armor and I will pull you through the glitch you landed on."

I focused on my armor turning back and as I did, I was pulled though the glitch by my belt and ou by Veetor's hideout. "Damn, that's crazy."

We all met up, beginning into Veetor's place when Danny and I heard Jacob lean over to Miranda and whisper, "I'm not sure we really know what we bargained for with these boys."

I waited back and grabbed Danny's collar as the others stepped into Veetor's room. Once they were all gone, I closed the door and let go of my friend. Finally, away from prying eyes, I asked the question that had been on my mind.

"What happened while I was gone?"

Danny looked back at me and smiled, giving me a slap on the shoulder. "We moved into Mass Effect two. Everything changed. I am a total badass, still. Where should I start?"

"What happened to you I guess is my first question." I said, leaning against the nearby railing.

"Well, the AI had me hunt down the Virus as best I could since I am the strongest code manipulator here." He said, puffing up with pride. "Anyway, lets just say that it is going to take a while for your body count to catch up and I'm not exactly slowing down."

"Why are you working with Cerberus?" I asked, just trying to wrap my head around the full story.

"Eh, it was just convenient because I had to get on the team somehow." He answered. "Plus, I am totally banging my supervisor."

The last part made me shake my head to see if I heard him right. "Wait a second, you joined Cerberus because it was convenient?"

"I could have said no. Besides, not like they were going to do anything with how scared they are of us."

"So they fear you and you are doing your supervisor? Who is your supervisor?"

"Sorry, can't say. She said she would kill me if I told someone who she was specifically."

Tali pushed up the stairs and we let her pass without any trouble. Though, I didn't maike or even give the chance for eye contact or anything of the sort. Between my anger trying to kill her earlier, not saving her on the Citadel, and her general dislike of me now, I didn't think she wanted to chat either. It was a short wait after she stepped in before the door closed and I was able to keep getting infor from Danny.

"So, Cody?"

"Joined the alliance because he needed to hone his skills since his power is shit. I lost contact with him a few months back." He gripped the rail a bit. "I don't even know where he is in the galaxy."

"So, it's just you and me against the cyberverse?"

"Hehehe, you wish. Sorry dude, but I have my own adventure to go on after this."

I looked at Danny, confusion just one thing that I was feeling. "Wait, you're ditching me with these guys after this? Dude, what the hell?"

"Ty, things have changed. I have my own shit to work on. It's not you, it's not me. It's the fact that we need to spread out. The closer we are, the more carnage will break out."

I looked down at the rail and sighed. "That was the magic of us doing it though. I didn't think we created more carnage than what was necessary."

"Ty, we created more carnage than Shepard did in the other games."

"Yeah, but… ah fuck, dude, you can't ditch me with them. In the twenty minutes that you guys found me in, I have already gone out of control and tried to kill Tali."

"Yeah, but I'm sure that Shepard will be there to get you under control."

I gave him a flat look. "No matter how much you try to assure me of this, I won't believe it because he will more than likely headshot me at this point."

"What do you want from me? I'm not a miracle worker. I'm just going with the flow and following orders."

"Orders?" I asked. "What the hell do you mean following orders?"

"Lot has changed Ty." A shuttle flew overheard and he began walking down the stairs. "Anyway, I'll catch you later. Got a few places to head to before Omega."

I raised an eyebrow utterly stunned. Danny was a secret agent, Cody became a jar head and I was tortured for a few years. Everything is completely shit.

**^Why is this coming out so late?^**

**S:Late? This was my plan. I noticed when I woke up and checked it's place on the board. Uploading the night before was keeping mroe people from seeing it so I did it now. Anyway, I gotta go to work now. This is he other half of the last chapter. LEave me a review if you prefer this or night uploads. 1473I2.**


	7. You Are (Not) Alone

**Shepard:**

John stepped onto the Normandy and began exploring around the Normandy. Ty had already ran off into the ship and set up somewhere. Made sense that he wouldn't wanna check the place out considering he said he played through the game several times.

That didn't put a damper on John's new union with the Normandy SR2 though. Everything smelled new and yet felt so similar to the old one for… the first few steps. As soon as he reached the elevator, he knew the nostalgia was over. The left side was locked down while the right was open and John took notice of Jacob working with weapons, feeling a slight chuckle at the thought of him handling weapons.

"Don't blow yourself up Jacob." He said as he passed, glancing at the table of weapons for anything new.

Jacob just waved at John, somewhat annoyed but otherwise focused on his work more than what was going on around him. Instead of stopping and trying to start up some chit chat. John continued on to the Normandy elevator and hit the down button beginning his descent to the crew deck.

The elevator hit the next floor, opening to the crew deck. He stepped out and saw that to his left, was an open door that music was blaring out the door. From his guess, Ty was in there and getting settled in as best as he could.

Figuring that he would walk in on Ty doing something embarrassing, he decided it would be a good idea to check on him. "Ty, how you doing?"

He stepped in and saw that the music was coming from a pair of speakers that had been rigged into the wall at every corner. Ty was sitting at a bar in the room, doing multiple shots but not in his usual fun-all-the-time self. He was laying his head against the table, and just all together looking dejected.

"Hey Shepard." Ty called, lifting a glass to the commander. "What brings you to my sad corner of the Normandy?"

He walked forward. "Well, I was figuring you would be having a party or all together getting fucked up now that you are off the ship. Instead, I find you wallowing in a pit of despair." He stepped behind the bar. "Now, to me, that is completely out of character and back asswards for you. What's up?"

"I have no idea what the collectors did to me but I feel supremely horrified. I don't have either of my friends here to support me. On top of that, I almost killed Tali and probably severed any chance of Jacob or Miranda warming up to me. Sprinkle in a bit of distaste that you hold for me and you have my situation." He raised his glass up and drank what was in it.

Both Ty and John knew of his own reasons for disliking Ty. However, could he really turn his back on someone that has been pushed down and kicked until nothing was left of who that person formerly was. _Fuck my life._

"It is bad, but you can mark one person off your list." John answered, grabbing a glass and pouring himself a shot before refilling Ty's glass. "Now, I'm gonna toast and you are going to toast with me." He raised his glass and waited for Ty to do the same.

Ty pushed his face off the counter and put his glass up with a roll of his eyes to go along with it. "Can't wait to see where this goes."

"To a new adventure, a new crew, and a new start… for both of us." He waited for Ty to react with a smile before taking a drink with him. "Now, who's the commander?"

Ty raised his eyebrow. "I still have that picture of you and Danny cuddling. Who's the User?"

He smirked back at Ty and began to pour them both a new glass. "Okay, I got a point I'm gonna make. Can we really say that we are having a fresh start if you are keeping blackmail around?"

"Do you really think you can trust me after I was willing to let Tali stay dead?" Ty shot back, looking down at the glass, fidgeting it in his hand.

John squeezed his glass and thought about it before nodding and taking a drink. "You know what? I can forgive you for it. Just make sure it was a one time deal and stays that way."

He seemed to think about it before nodding and taking a drink. "Okay, I swear I won't blackmail you with that photo."

"So, you gonna delete it?"

He chuckled. "I said I wouldn't blackmail you but I never said anything about deleting it. Danny is in that pic too."

"You twisted devil." John shot, stifling a laugh at Danny's misfortune.

"Hey, two years of whatever the collectors did you me will change you."

He took a drink of his alcohol and let out a satisfied sigh. "Lets just hope that change is for the better."

He gave a few nods and took his drink as well. "I highly doubt they kidnapped me to give me a new lease on life."

"Why do you think they grabbed you and not me? I mean besides you being so powerful." He asked, something in the back of his mind telling him that just Ty's power couldn't have been the only reason they kidnapped him._ No, that is too obvious._

"I don't know. Maybe they were trying to brainwash me. I recall a few dreams where you and Tali were trying to kill me but I was saved by… someone." He squinted, obviously trying to concentrate. "I can't for the life of me think of who it was but I know that it was someone."

"Well, if you see that person. Let me know. He might be the key to figuring this whole thing out."

He nods and takes another swig of his drink. "So, who's the first person we are going to pick up?"

John gave it some good thought but then looked to Ty. "Who are you thinking?"

"Kasumi is pretty cool and you can trust her a lot more than you can Jacob or Miranda right now. Then again, if you are looking for a fight. I suggest the Warlord dude."

John saw one of the ships datapads sitting on the counter and snatched it up, logging into his account in the process. "Miranda was telling me that we need professor Solus to find a countermeasure to fight off the seeker swarms."

"Eh, Mordin can figure that out as soon as he gets on the ship. I highly suggest grabbing him last. Go for Kasumi and then just work your way to the right. Then grab everyone along the way." He drank what was left in his glass and sat what was left of it on the table. "Now, I'm gonna take a rest because this is the first time that I have been able to go to bed with a blood alcohol content."

"Enjoy the rest." John answers walking around the bar, datapad under arm. "I will go set the new course and come get you when it is time to land on the Citadel."

"Just do it without me. You will be fine."

"I know I will be fine but I don't trust someone that I just met to stay on my ship alone. Don't you love this fresh start?"

"God fu-" the rest of his sentence was cut off as the door closed. _ It's good to troll the troll._

John continued his walk around the ship, looking in every door he could and just having a general good time in the new Normandy. Though, it wasn't until he came to the medbay that the one face he was happiest to see besides Joker appeared. Quickly, he rushed in through the door. "Chakwas?!"

She turned around and gave him a smile and nod. "Hello Shepard, good to see you alive now."

"Chakwas, why are you here? Why did you join Cerberus?" John asked, completely perplexed by her being on the ship. Joker, he could understand. Her, he couldn't.

"Well, I heard that you were back and that Cerberus needed a doctor for your newest adventure. Beyond that, it doesn't really matter. I'm here to support you."

John leaned back on his left foot and crossed his arms. "Well, either way, it's good to have you aboard doctor."

"Glad to be here, Shepard. By the way, I have been meaning to do a check up on Ty but he refuses to come to my office here. Do you think you can get him and tell him to see me before his next mission?" She asked in a polite tone.

"Yeah, he's taking a rest right now but I can order him in here after he wakes up."

"Thank you commander." She turned around and got back to the work she was doing.

John stepped out of the door, just in time to hear Miranda come over the intercom. "Shepard? Could you please come to my office for a moment?"

"Sure Miranda, I'll be there." He said, a bit more annoyed that she interrupted his first rounds.

Luckily, she was just a short walk away so all he had to do was step across the hall. He got to the door and noticed that it was about the same place that his old room used to be. The door opened before he could do anything but Miranda was still at her desk. _Voice command maybe._

"Shepard, I assume you are wondering why I paged you."

"I can only guess that you need to explain to me the importance of this mission or tell me something that I bet I could get from anyone else." John answered, already tired of Miranda's know-it-all attitude.

She pinched the bridge of her nose and sat back in her chair. "No Shepard, I wanted to talk to you about my and your biggest problem."

"And that would be?"

"Ty."

He threw his head back in exasperation, utterly pissed off. "Can someone call me up and not need to mention or talk about Ty?"

"Shepard, he is ultra powerful, hardly responsible, and was just captured by the collectors. It's kinda impossible to not talk about him."

After a sigh, John sat back and leaned against the wall. "What did you wanna talk about?"

"I don't think we should take him on any missions just yet. We don't know what they did to him and from what he told us in the debrief, he just woke up in a pile of snow without any memory of the last two months. Our research has shown that amnesia after that kind of event is only because of two things. Either a mind breaking incident that if realized could destroy the person or the more likely scenario… brain washing."

It took John a moment to think about but that would make sense and explain, at least a little bit, why Ty was acting so different. "That is possible… but right now I am wondering why he was in two people when we found him. Maybe that is what the collectors did. They made it so that his rage would split off and attack us. Hoping that he would be upset enough with me to constitute it. Like what happened with Tali."

"While that does seem like a likely scenario, do you really think the collectors would go on that many open ended answers? Hopefully he was angry enough at you and maybe he would try to kill you. If anything, from where I am standing, this could be more of a defense mechanism. Ty's mind is trying to distract himself from the serious problems. If anything, your theory might have been a little extra hope that the collectors had for the outcome. Like a possible side effect of their actual plan."

John sat back after that and let it sink in. "Well, that could be a problem… but then again. He is the heaviest hitter and can we really afford to bench him? We have you and Jacob thus far and no offense but neither of you look like he does and is still able to hold off a mech."

"It's your call Commander. I can only inform you of what I know and my opinion on the matter."

He nodded and began to think about it. _Can I bench him?_

**^Holly shit, this is out really late. Why is that?^**

**S7: I swear to god, this isn't going to happen againn. Last week was intentional, this week is not. I got caught up with school, my girlfriends birthday, and my little brothers birthday so instead of having all the time that I prefer to have, I was up the creek without a paddle. Sadly, I had to cut this chapter in half to have something ready in case this next week goes haywire. But there is a silver lining to this.**

**^What is that?^**

**S7: My buddy, JustAFerret, is guest starring in this A/N. Say hello Ferret!**

**Ferret: Aloha peeps and peepettes of the internet!**

**S7: Ferret and I have been friends for quite a while and together have worked on several fics. The one that my readers are probably familiar with is Tango Squad.**

**Ferret: We are also working on a super secret absolutely covert mysterious underground fic.**

**~... It's a Destiny fic.~**

**Ferret: NOOO! IT'S RUINED!**

**S7: Thanks Layla. And you wonder why CTHI beat you in the popularity pole.**

**~... She beat me?~**

**S7: Anyway, Ferret, what do you write?**

**Ferret: OCs! It's all OCs with a little bit of canon characters on the side. Makes a good helping of story cuisine**

**S7: Favorite character of all time?**

**Ferret: Hmm...eveyone's favorite assassination droid! HK-47!**

**S7: Everyone's favorite assassin is Deadpool.**

**Ferret: Ah but deadpool is a man with witty one-liners and a love of stabbing. I greatly respect a man like that. But HK-47 is like GLaDOS but with more murder!**

**S7:HK didn't kill an entire Universe of superheroes.**

**Ferret: But never will you find another budding robot companion who will kill off an entire senate for you. That's true loyalty.**

**S7: Legion… Cortana… CL4P-TR4P… I'm pretty sure that Fulgor from Killer Instinct would.**

**Ferret: Ah but none of them can lighten the mood via filling a person with extra holes. HK is a wonderful ball of fury, murder, and more fury.**

**S7: Alright, well we'll let the reviewers settle this. Leave your favorite Robot companion in a review and either side with Ferret and HK or me and everyone else.**

**^That's kinda unfair.^**

**S7: Shut up Ty, I make the rules. **

**Ferret: I AM THE LAW!**

**S7:Anyway, on a side note. I will be updating and visiting my Facebook page (It's just Starspike7) way more often. So, if you want to join me, maybe have a conversation, just drop in and give it a like. Same goes for my Twitter though I don't really plan to update that too often. You got anything else Ferret?**

**Ferret: For those of you who are also fans of Trebor117, he will also be joining us on the Destiny fic.**

**S7: Alright, well, that's it for me then 1473I2.**


	8. You Are (Not) Respected

**Miranda:**

Miranda took a glance at Ty, sneering at the sight of him screwing with his gun's laser pointer. "Do you really have to do that inside the shuttle?"

He deactivated it, face reddening. "I… it's just… Really god damn boring riding in this thing."

Miranda's eye twitched. "Boring? We are going to meet the greatest thief in the galaxy and you… are bored?"

He shrugged and leaned back against his seat. "Sorry, I don't find sitting in one place and watching the other side of the shuttle that entertaining. Seriously, we could be going to Disneyland but that doesn't make the car ride there the greatest ride."

"God, you're like a four year old with how you find annoyances to everyone else entertaining. When are you gonna grow up and realize that life isn't fun, it's work."

He raised an eyebrow at her and looked over at Shepard. "Geez, can you believe Miss Sunshine over here?"

"Just ignore her, Ty. She is obviously taking her aggression for something else out on you because you are the easiest target for it."

"No, it's the fact that I have to be on a crew, ship and fireteam with a overpowered buffon. He's immature, idiotic, and completely intolerable. The fact that you allowed him on your last team and the illusive man wants you on his team this time is not only a mystery but it is a insult. My genetics are perfect, biotic abilities are on a scale that rival Asari and I have put in the work to be considered one of the best Sentinels in the galaxy. As such, I expect to be on a team with the best and only the best. Not him."

Ty shook his head at her and went to looking out the window. "Wow, and you all thought I was a cocky S.O.B."

She stood up to yell some more but stopped when she realized that he shuttle was landing. "I have reason and actions that back it. Anyway, Shepard, is there anything that you need?"

"Yeah, I was going to go run some errands and pick up supplies. Though, if you are offering…" He held out a datapad. "This is everything we need."

She took it and glanced at it. "Ammo casings… extra thermal clips… And- wait, why the hell do we need bacon?"

"Rupert said that I could store anything I wanted in the fridge and I want bacon."

She looked on later down the list. "And why do you need a sentry interface? Never pegged you for someone who relied on shields."

"That's for Ty."

She looked at him with disgust and then to Shepard. "Why does he need a sentry interface when he is wearing armor with a built in helmet?"

"The helmet is annoying and stuffy. Plus, a sentry interface is nice to have because it can give me a read out on our enemies. On top of all that, let's face it, nothing about the helmet matches the armor in intimidation factor. The interface I can make necessary adjustments to, should I need them."

"Fine." The door to the shuttle opened up and she exited onto the Citadel before Ty or Shepard, noticing an advertisement with a hooded lady on it.

The Advertisement seemed to look in their direction. "Shepard, step forward and say the code for a fabulous prize."

John gave both Ty and her a wave to follow as he walked up to the advertisement. "Silence is golden."

"Good to finally meet you Commander Shepard. Kasumi Goto. I'm a fan." She said, giving a not to Shepard on the billboard.

"What's with a passwords and sneaking around? Are you in trouble?"

"I'm the best in the business, not the most famous. Need to watch my step to keep it that way." She said, matter of factly.

Ty jabbed Shepard in the side, with his elbow and whispered. "Dude, think about it. Do ninjas like to be known?"

"Fair enough." John said to Ty before turning back to Kasumi.

"I have to say Shepard, your reputation precedes you in a way that tells a lot but nothing can truly get you right. You have an aura about you. Like you have seen things no one else has. Even without knowing what you looked like, I knew it was you."

"Okay, okay. Has Cerberus filled you in on the mission?"

"Honestly, I'm shocked they didn't come to me sooner. My fault: for being hard to find, I guess."

"What brought you to Cerberus?"

"That's a bit of a story. Short version, they were looking for me, so I trailed them to find out out they were looking for someone to join you on an important mission… and were offering a serious signing bonus. I have a thing that I needed help with, so I made them a deal. And here we are."

"I assume this deal is something I should know about."

"In time, I will fill you in on the details. As of right now, all you need to know is that you, the kid and me will all be breaking into a high security vault."

Miranda noticed Ty's face light up while Shepard's face formed into a question. "Why do you need the both of us?"

"No offense Shepard, you're good but we are going to need a wildcard and he makes the perfect wildcard. At least that is what I know from vids and reports from Cerberus. Anyway, we better wrap this up quick. You look pretty silly talking to a billboard. I'll get my stuff and move it to the Normandy."

John nodded and pointed to Ty. "Do you need some help moving the stuff?"

"No, I should be fine." She said, deactivating the board.

"Alright, Ty, go catch up to her because I am sure you know where she is going. Miranda and I will go pick up the supplies."

**Ty:**

Once the commander finished, I stepped into a nearby glitch to jump up to Kasumi but I came out in… the Normandy Medbay?

"Ty, I told you that I needed to see you before you went out on the Citadel and you blatantly ignored me." Chakwas said, turning around in her chair, holding two glasses of bourbon.

I sighed and walked over, taking a seat on the chair she had set up near her. "Sorry, after two years on a collector ship, I kinda am going to blame the person that told me she controls this world."

She outstretched one of the glass to me. "Ty, I'm going to be blunt with you. The virus is getting a lot more powerful. He is systematically infecting the entire system. As of right now, he controls more of the system with every passing second. Right now, he's at thirty-three percent control. Meaning, he took over every violent program. Collectors, mercenaries, and even attack animals."

I took the glass but didn't drink any. "So, you are saying that the virus is the reason I was captured. Why the hell would it choose to capture me?"

"Besides you being the most well adjusted to your powers, it's also the zero on your chest."

I looked down at the zero and then back at her. "Because it was made from the corrupted code?"

"No, because it is corrupted code that has bonded to you. You may get out of here but that zero is coming with. If it gets you, it is going to use that zero to bond to you and then it will take you over. From there is will crush your mind, making it smaller and smaller, slowly locking you away in your own body until you have withered and just… go away."

"I can fight it. Saren thought that the exact same thing would happen to me but I managed to survive it somehow and not only escape his absorption but reverse it." I said hating the thought of her underestimating me.

She took a drink and let out a satisfied sigh. "Ty, you are a strange one. You survived absorption and even managed to take in corrupted code, a feat that none before you have done, but there are feats that even you cannot accomplish. To try to come back from what the virus will do to you… it's as possible as taking an embarrassing picture of video of yourself off the internet."

I took a long drink from the bourbon, making sure to finish it in one go before I spoke. "Alright, then how can I stop this thing from getting to that point?"

"It's going to come after you in force now. You escaped the collectors by some means that even I can't comprehend but that will only slow it down. I know that somehow, in some way, to some degree it figured out how to bond to you. So there is no stopping that, but you can keep it away from you by defeating every one of it's creations it has the gawl to sick on you."

"So what, just same old same old. Take down the knights until the king reveals himself. Then what?"

"Then, you run. You can't beat the virus because he truly is unbeatable. Every one of his blows that he lands on you will undoubtedly infect you with more code. Thus, you will not survive a long encounter. It's gonna be like fighting a tree. Sometimes, you have to give up and come back another time, continuing to chop at him."

"Is there something I can do to get rid of the code?"

"Your data purge will be your best bet. While it only lets out a small amount, the more you use it the better. It purges corrupted and infected code so that you can in essence fight off the infection."

"What happens if I hit it with a data purge?"

"Then, it would just get it's code back and be able to get it back in you. Don't even ask about format striking, glitching or even armor manipulating. One touch gives him a direct connection. If that happens, he will transfer a massive amount of code into you that could, in theory take you over."

"So, this is something I can't shoot, punch or destroy. Talk about a juggernaut."

"Indeed, I will speak with the other AI and see if we find a way for you to fight the virus. Until then, I have Danny running interference on the virus's plans and attempts at you. Luckily, he is not as intune with his power as you so he is not as easily detected. From what he has gathered, Danny is finding many of them on Illium instead of Omega or the Citadel. I wouldn't let my guard down on those planets but you are going to be in a better place when you are away from Ilium."

I stood up from the chair and handed her my glass. "Okay, so this virus is going to be hunting me because I am the best and most likely to bond with it. Same goes for Layla in the case of a merger. Two entities want to use me and my power to take over."

"That is the gist of it, yes."

"Are we sure that they aren't one in the same? Like the virus is trying to get to me but I will actually have to allow it in in order for it to take over?"

"No, Layla was in here before the virus. I sensed her before the virus even managed to get through my first fire wall. No, they are different. Working together? Now that is a different question entirely. One that we will undoubtedly find the answer to in due time. Until then, Ty, I think you should go and make sure that all your equipment is ready. Shepard is going to go for Grunt next and as we all know, that is one difficult place no matter if I turn the difficulty up or not."

**S7: I feel like this chapter blows.**

**^Maybe you shouldn't be writing it after watching Washington State lose.^**

**S7: Fucking A, how do you lose by one point, I mean… no, I am going to sign off with dignity here.**

**^You have dignity?^**

**S7:Mother fu- No no. Okay, thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter. NAFN, I will be answering your question in chapter ten with anyone else who has something they need to get off their chest.**

**^Remember to leave a review with a question in it. We only have next chapter before another question chapter comes up.^**

**S7: Thanks Ty, anyway, this should be the last week of short 2K chapters. I finally am dropping back down to 22 hour weeks instead of 48 hour weeks at work so YEAH! And lets make a deal, if I get to 25 reviews by Thursday, I will put up a chapter on Friday. Okay?**

**^Review-whore!^**

**S7:*Facepalm* 1473I2.**


	9. You Can (Not) Prove Yourself

**Ty:**

I hefted the last of Kasumi's stuff off the cart and sat it in the bar room. It wasn't that she had a lot but what she did have was filled to the brim with her books. Worse, she wasn't even helping me arguing that there was no point in two people moving, instead choosing to set up the room how she wanted it.

"Okay, that's the last box. How do you manage to keep so many books with you in your travels? Seriously, don't you like stay in cargo bays all the time and sneak around?"

"Sorry, trade secret. If you decide to become a thief one day, I may tell you."

I sat back on the couch and rubbed the back of my neck. "Yeah, if it's cool with you. I'll stick to being me on this mission."

She took a seat across from me for a second and left the book boxes sitting in one place. "That reminds me, when I was looking at the dossiers for the mission and getting into, your file was so guarded that I might as well have been attempting a bank heist alone with no equipment by hacking it. So, what exactly is being you on this mission entail?"

I chuckled at her question and leaned back, stretching my arms out. "I'm the wild card, Mrs. Goto. All of you have your specialties and abilities for when the mission is going correctly but it's when everything goes fubar that I come in. Now, I have a question for you. Why do you need me to help you sneak into Donovan Hock's estate?"

"Your small, thin and lanky. You will make a perfect waiter." She said, standing back up and moving to place books on the shelf.

"Waiter? Oh for the love of god, why do I have to be a waiter?"

"Because you wouldn't make a believable crime lord and Shepard wouldn't make a believable waiter. It was the best I could do to include the 'wild card' in my plan."

"Ha ha, but seriously, why did you say you needed me before you even knew who I was?"

"I found some videos of 'This Batshit Crazy Asshole that Survived Getting Blasted Across the Presidium' the guy looked like you and you were fighting some sort of cat-man-thing."

I reached up and began to stroke my crappily cut beard. "Huh, that was posted on the extranet? Wait, what makes you assume that was me?"

She pulled up a freeze frame, zoomed in on my face as I began to punch into Baldar, my skyrim character who got sucked into Mass Effect and tried to kill me. "Your eyes."

I leaned in and looked at them, trying to decipher what she meant. "What? There are… two of them?"

"No, your eyes, they have this grey-blue mixture. Like... "

"My ex used to say I had eyes like the sun about to break through the clouds."

"More of an oncoming story. Even when you smile, your eyes scream hurricane." She paused for a moment, as if sensing what I was about to say.

"Well, I do rock like one." I wasn't even trying to resist making the pun.

She didn't face palm but kept putting her books away. "You know, from what I hear around the Normandy, you are a wild card because you tend to let your emotions get the better of you. Enough that it's like you are a whole different person."

"No, I split off a whole nother person."

"... Are you trying to say metaphorically?"

"No, literally. I got so angry that I split off another me that was entirely comprised or rage. He was a rabid dog and took me a day to convince to let me call the shots. It was only because I promised him we would meet up with someone that he… that we both had a grudge against. I completely forgot that the promise of meeting her was the chain that I kept him on. So when we ran into her..."

Kasumi nodded, continuing to put her books away. "How has it been since then?"

"Well, my anger has been under wraps since then though we only have picked you up since it happened. Don't really know what that means in long term but short term it's under wraps."

"Geez, how did your life get to be so complicated?"

"I played too many videogames."

"... What?" She asked, putting another big stack of books away.

"Nothing, kinda my own personal joke."

"Please don't tell me that you have a lot of those." She said, stopping and looking at one of the books in her hand.

"You know, you might want to read this." She held out a book to me that I took and looked at.

"This is the Iliad. Story of Achilles. The man that had anger issues and heel problems."

"More than that. It's something to be weary of. Read it, see what you get from it."

"I'm more of an Odyssey guy than a Iliad but I will. Plenty of time to read now that I am free of constant experiments and trouble. Well, okay so I am not free of the trouble but the experiments."

"So, do you remember anything from the collector base?" She took a short beak since the bookshelf was halfway full at this point.

I thought back to my episode on Freedom's Progress. "Sometimes but it's so horrible that I am able to block it out pretty easily… Or they brainwashed me and the memories are being suppressed by the brainwashing because they don't want me knowing what it is that they are going to make me do. Both of those are equally scary."

Kasumi gave a nod and resumed placing books. "Well, I am going to continue doing this for a bit. Could you come and get me if Shepard decides to take me on the next mission?"

"Yeah, sure anything else you need?" I asked, snatching the book up.

"No, I should be good. Watch that temper, okay?" I was surprised, Kasumi was the first person in a while besides Shepard to show some adamant worry for me.

"I will." I walked out the door and started for the mess, food was now at the top of my list.

I stepped into the kitchen and threw a pan on the stove top, once I was read I followed it up with a quick flip of the heat and walked over to the fridge. Rummaging through the thing I didn't find anything worth taking out just yet. Over ripe tomatoes, bananas, and apples were what took up most of it but in the corner was the best thing for me right now. Eggs, at least a full rack with twenty-four of the suckers.

I snatched up three of them and the milk with it to begin making a decent dish for once. As I grabbed out a nearby cup and cracked four eggs into it, my mind drifted to my apartment with some strange memory. In it, I was using biotics to expertly cook an entire meal looking like something out of the Weasley's house. After a quick shake of my head to push it away, I chalked it up to memories by brainwashing and left it at that.

As I continued to cook, I head a steps leaving the elevator and at a quick glance I knew it was Miranda. She kept a professional look on her face as she strode in my direction. Her holier than thou stature showing through with every step. Continuing past her door and up to me, she pulled up a small case, setting it down on the table.

"Here is the Sentry Interface that you asked for. Be careful with it, it will cost you one mission's pay." She warned, probably expecting to get a reaction out of me.

"No worries, I have all the money I will ever need." I reached back into the fridge and grabbed out two apples. "I'm making some omelets, care to try one?"

She gave the ingredients a disgusted look and shook her head. "No thanks… Shepard wanted me to tell you that you are on the Okeer extraction team. Set down will be in eighteen hours. Make sure you get some rest so that you don't get tired and screw up."

"That's because it wasn't from Shepard." She turned on her heels after that and left. For some reason it brought to mind that scarface mercenary that I always imagined on the Citadel but it quickly dissipated.

Wasn't too long after that than Shepard stepped up to the counter getting a look at what I was doing. "What do you got there?"

"Making a bacon, hash brown and apple omelette. Want one?"

"Bacon? There is bacon on something and you are asking if I want it instead of just giving it to me?"

I made a fake panicking gesture. "Oh my god, I am so sorry. Please don't renegade interrupt me."

"Renegade what?" He asked, confused by my last words.

"Ah, forget that my humor doesn't transfer over to well here."

"Hm, I wonder why that is?" John asked, giving a smirk since he was able to make his own joke that only he and I would get.

I grabbed out a spatula and flipped the omelette and let it sit for a bit. "So, what do you think of the team so far?"

"Miranda is cockier than you, Jacob is pretty much just a average jarhead, and Kasumi is a kleptomaniac. Oh, and you are an out of control psychopath. Did I forget anything?"

"I wouldn't call me psychopathic just not as stable as everyone else."

"You spent two years probably getting torturous experiments done on you and on top of that, we don't even know what the hell they did to you. Only that they did something or other to you that will undoubtedly come back to bite us in the ass later on."

"Geez, harsh much? Mind taking a step back and chatting about something easy?"

"You brought it up."

I flipped the omelette and thought about what we could talk about. "How's about we go and play some videogames? Something simple yet elegant. Like Pacman or mario?"

"What like a game within a game? That is some inception shit right there."

"Inception is still a thing here?"

"Well, you have the sequel, the prequel and the reboot."

"Whoh, just had some deja vu when you said that. Like I heard you say it before in a similar circumstance or something." It was scary how much stuff like that was happening to me now. "Anyway, so what? They are fun and perfect for bonding over."

"Well, now that you mention it. I Did hear a guy on the Citadel talking about an awesome game called Alliance corsair. It sounded pretty fun. But I don't know if it is multiplayer." He said, pulling up his omni-tool to give it a look.

I looked down and noticed that the eggs were just about cooked. A quick movement of the spatula and I had them on a plate, set in front of Shepard before I started on my own batch. "Sounds good, but maybe we should do like Halo or Call of Duty. Something withco-op tactics. Get us used to working together again."

"We aren't going to find cooperation in a video game." HE took a bite of his eggs and made a satisfied grunt before looking up at me.

All I did was raise an eyebrow at him.

He gave me a glare and spouted, "You know what I meant."

**S7: Fuck an authors note. It's been a long week and I barely had the inspiration to do this chapter.**


	10. I Am (Not) Brainwashed

**Shepard:**

The shuttle touched down and John stepped out, waving his four man crew forward with him. He brought Miranda for her biotics, Kasumi for tech, and Ty for obvious reasons. As it stood, his chances of getting to Okeer were good but talking him into joining them was going to be a stretch.

"Ah, gotta love a sunny day in junk city." Ty called, placing his Sentry Interface over his eyes, making it light up red.

"You seriously are going with the black and red look, aren't you?" Kasumi said, locking his pistol's safety off.

"You joke about that, but I saw the black and red robes in your wardrobe. You are just jealous that you didn't set the trend."

She rolled her eyes and looked away after that and off toward the area of the oncoming enemies. John had them pegged moment one and fired off a concussive shot that blew most of them away and prompted a loud scream from one. Ty took point after that and glitched up to the enemies, finishing them off with a few shots from his mattock.

"Hey, Shepard, I got a live one here!" Ty's call was followed by a loud, blood curdling scream that made Shepard sprint forward to catch up. Instead of seeing Ty doing something unspeakable to him, he changed his armor into something demonic and was saying what seemed like demonic promises.

"Then, after I am done filleting you alive, I am gonna knit a sweater with your intestines. I will be so nice any-"

"Ty, quit freaking out the poor bastard?" Ty looked back and the armor disappeared.

"Just making sure this guy has a lump of iron in his stomach before he talks to you." He said, stepping out of the way and making room for John.

Kneeling down beside the guy, Shepard made sure to take a good cop stance instead of badcop since Ty already was holding the title. As soon as he got in close, he heard chatter coming in from the guys comm.

"Keep them off us, please." He said, keeping a polite but 'no shit' tone.

He nodded, a look of pain crossing his face as he readjusted himself. "Negative on the back up. We managed to take down the berzerkers."

There was a confirmation that the others were not coming and Shepard began talking. "Alright, what's going on here?" He looked down and saw the man's leg. "Tell the truth and there might be a nice medigel application for you."

"We were hired to guard the premises and take down any of the rejects that the boss sends down our way." He paused from the pain in his leg. "It was supposed to be an easy job, no one told us of professional mercenaries and…" He glanced at Ty, "That would be attacking."

"Okay, how about Okeer? Where is he at?" John questioned.

"Okeer is up in the tower with Jedore creating more Krogan for her army."

Ty walked up and pulled the guy to his feet after he was done speaking. "Take off now and you might find a nice shady spot to die in."

The guy panicked and turned tail, running away from Ty of all people.

"You know, you didn't have to scare him that bad?" John said, pulling his pistol out and starting down the path.

"Yeah, then again, how many chances do _I_ get to intimidate someone?" He asked, serious but with a hint of enjoyment.

"Alright, let's just get moving." He pulled the assault rifle off his back and taking point.

The rest of the merch groups didn't fair a much better chance, most of them fell faster than the first group thanks to Ty and Kasumi getting the jump on all of them. During that time, Shepard had Miranda compile a map of the area.

"Alright, it's looking like we are coming to a dead end." She said, pointing at her datapad. "But, some sort of confrontation is going on that might be the key to getting past."

"Who's fighting?" John asked, taking a moment to look at Miranda's datapad.

She circled the one on the receiving end of the blue-suns. "It looks like a Krogan."

"That could be Okeer, trying to make a break for it. Ty, Kasumi, move faster, we have a krogan in trouble up ahead!" John barked, prompting everyone to begin sprinting into position around the Krogan.

John slid into cover and took aim at the nearest enemy. Before he can even think to pull the trigger, Miranda fires a shot from her pistol that clips the mercenary's shoulder and causes it to fire a rocket into the air. The sudden fire from a comrade causes one of the other two to look at the rocket in surprise, one of them did so completely out of cover. John used the distraction to put one perfectly between the man's eyes.

In all the distraction the third guy began to line up his shot but the krogan lobbed a grenade that stuck right to the man's head. Two seconds later, his disappeared in a flash and explosion.

The Krogan holstered his weapon and walked up to Shepard once the enemy was clear. "Who are you? Tank mother never spoke of you?"

"Are… are you Okeer?"

"Okeer, this name means much and at the same time I know little about it. All I do know is that I am not perfect, so I wait."

"What do you mean, you are not perfect? I get nobody is perfect but the way you say it…?" John asked, leaving it open ended on purpose.

"I do not know. I was in tank mother long ago and a voice talked to me. Each day, it talked to me told me more and then one day, it told me I was not perfect. Then, I woke up here."

"So, you are something… else entirely. Do you remember the way back? The way to… tank mother?"

The Krogan nodded and walked over to some wreckage before ripping a huge piece, probably weighing over one ton away from it. "This is the way. Now, you will go and I will wait."

John chose not to argue and stepped past the krogan, opting to not ask for him to help them.

**Miranda:**

Miranda walked forward holding her pistol at the ready next to Shepard, occasionally glancing back at Kasumi and Ty to make sure they weren't too close. After a few glances, she noticed a distinct lack of a weapon of any kind in Ty's hands. Against her better judgement, she stopped the group and looked at Ty.

"Alright, where the hell is your gun?"

Ty shrugged. "I don't have anymore clips. What I am I supposed to do with dry guns? Point and yell bang?"

"Ty, you should at least have a weapon out for when you find more ammo."

"What if I need both hands to grab ammo but I can't because I got a weapon in one hand?" He shot back.

"Only in a specific situation would that come in. Look, can you please just pull out a pistol?"

Ty sighed and began walking again. "Fine, I guess I can attempt to lazerpoint one of them to death."

The group continued until they came to an open area and spotted enemies beginning to flood their area. Miranda followed Shepard and took cover next to him, preparing her pistol for whoever came her way. The path that her and Shepard chose to cover began to fill as a squad of five blue suns moved into cover in front of them.

Using her omni-tool's overload function, she systematically began hitting each one to step out of cover before Shepard took their heads off with his sniper rifle. It only took them about a minutes to clear their side but after a quick peak, she saw that Kasumi was on the ground and Ty was at odds with a Krogan.

She turned, gun ready to back him up but there was no clear line of fire. Every time she managed to get an angle, Ty or the Krogan would move. It was all up to Ty at this point… and he was out of ammo.

She watched as the krogan bowed his head preparing to charge when Ty aimed his gun making the laser pointer dance around the beasts head. This only angered it and prompted the berzerker to charge forward at Ty. It closed in, obviously faster than Ty thought as he was forced to dive away letting the krogan charge off the cliff behind him.

John rushed over to Ty and looked around with his gun at the ready looking for possible threats. "Are you okay?"

Ty stood up and shook the dirt off of himself. "Well, considering that I just lazer pointed a Krogan to death? HELLS YEAH!"

Miranda facepalmed at his answer. "I honestly can't believe you did that. And I have seen you turn into a eight foot tall robot... thing."

"It was actually just a robotic exoskeleton but who's paying attention like that?"

"Alright, I'm gonna be on point from here. Ty, fall back until you get some ammo. Kasumi and Miranda, at my flanks so that you can pick off anybody that is a direct threat to me. Are we all clear?"

Everyone gave a nod or a thumbs up in Ty's case before taking off. The rest of the mission felt like a stale, training exercise as the four of them just seemed to fall back on training rather than actually needing to use their brains against the mercs. It was as if they were just operating like a computer program. It wasn't until Shepard took a breather on some stairs that the problems started to surface, those problems being Ty.

Miranda was able to tell that half way through, he began to fall behind often had to glitch jump or whatever he called it to keep up. His breathing was almost sporadic and half the time, he only managed to take down one enemy before dropping into cover wheezing as if he was having an asthma attack.

It was so bad and noticeable that once they stopped, John called him out on it.

"Ty, you look like you are dying out there." He said, looking down at Ty as the User fall back on his ass out of exhaustion.

"Sorry, I can't… I can't keep this up. I'm in even worse shape than when this whole thing started a few years ago. Not like sitting in a pod on a collector's ship is gonna do you any favors."

The last part of his words caught Miranda's attention. "A pod? Are you remembering something?"

He sat for a moment, clutching his head and making a face like he had eaten something sour. "Yeah, I remember being in a pod. So what?"

She quickly turned to Shepard and pointed at Ty. "His memories are engaging. Something tells me that the closer we are to Okeer, the more memories will surface. If that is true, it's may be proof of him being brainwashed."

"How would that be proof?" Ty asked, looking confused.

"Brainwashed people have often found that right before they enact some of the programing that the brainwashers left in them, they had memory clearings. In other words, if you start to remember more, then it might be safe to say that you are programed to sabotage us on this mission. Maybe even to kill Okeer, however unlikely it is that the Collectors knew we would be coming for him."

Miranda noticed Shepard and Ty exchange a look like they knew something.

"What was that?" She asked, looking between the two men.

"Well, there may have been a way but we can't be sure yet." Shepard said, covering his tracks.

She stood up to Shepard, a demanding look on her face. "If there is something that I should know and you aren't telling me…"

"Miranda, I can hack into any data, anywhere with a thought and the technology to do so nearby. Chances are that as soon as the collectors found a way to use that, they hacked into Cerberus's systems with that and found the dossiers."

Miranda's eyes lit with fire as Oriana's name echoed in her ears. "You're telling me, Cerberus may have been hacked?"

**S7: It's chapter 10, you know what that means?**

**^We get to answer questions!^**

**(Oh. I thought it meant it was time to eat some shark sushi.)**

**~Well, I still made that too but you weren't supposed to tell the readers.~**

**^Considering I am the cook and you… aren't. I'll skip that.^**

**(Eh, I can just toss a bunch of Wasabi on it if it sucks and won't be able to tell.)**

**S7: Anyway, how did you get here? I invited Trebor because one of the question pertained to us.**

**T117: Iron stabbed my tires with one of Bourne's knives- somehow expecting I'd think it wasn't him that did it- so I had to walk five blocks back to my laptop...expect pain in your future Iron. A lot of it.**

**^Okay, so first question: reading both this and SaWoF, I'm noticing parallels between your respective stories and wondering whether they're coincidental or not? Ty wakes up on the planet to meet Shepard at the beginning of the game with amnesia (even if its only partial) and Bourne has his buddies from the real world showing up to tear shit up (even though they're antagonistic.). It's a little funny, especially if it is a coincidence.^**

**S7: Mine was completely coincidental. Ty has amnesia because I wanted a slow reveal of how he got off the collector ship. Plus, and you can check with Trebor on this one. The big kicker is worth the payoff.**

**(Meh, I wouldn't go that-)**

**T117: Iron, you realize that CTHI is one phonecall away from being able to log you out, and if I don't just call Bourne in to kick your ass, Layla could always turn you into a fish?**

**(Oh, so you can insult him but I can't?)**

**T117: The bringing in other people from the real world thing was **_**somewhat **_**inspired by Spike's thing, but I'm kinda going out of my way to make sure it isn't just me ripping him off.**

**S7: So, it is kinda both. Next question, Lol like seriously?**

**^Yes… yes seriously.^**

**~You both are a couple dumbasses… you know that?~**

**( I knew that!)**

**S7: Alright, next question then Layla.**

**~Okay, here's one. Are you and Trebor having Bourne and Ty replacing each other with Kasumi?~**

**S7: Where did you get that one?**

**T117: Yeah, I don't see it either.**

**~You had to read between the lines of Masterdude's review for chapter 9 to get it.~**

**S7: Um… Okay. Well, Kasumi is there to help Ty reign himself in. When he literally splits when he feels a strong emotion, he is going to need someone to teach him how to control those. More of a teacher/student relationship… No, he's not going to be 'hot for teacher' Kasumi lovers. **

**T117: Yeah, and Kasumi taught Bourne about tech stuff and kinda became friends from there...and she also kinda keeps him on his toes by stealing his stuff when he's not looking...come to think of it, with the 'teaching him about tech stuff' she's kinda more like Layla than Ty.**

**(Except less ugly and annoying. Oh, and less of a bitch too.)**

**~Iron, I am going to reincarnate you into a fish next time I get the chance.~**

**(Yeah, good luck with that, eh Trebor?)**

**T117: You realize of course that if there was another crossover, I can and will figure out some way to make it possible for her to do that and worse to you?**

**(...Uh, when I said less ugly and annoying and less of a bitch, I meant Kasumi was less so than Ty?)**

**^I'll make sure you don't have sex organs but an overactive libido.^**

**(...Trebor typed that when I got up to get a drink and was just pretending to be me saying all that?)**

**T117: Even if that was true, do you think anybody here would care and not horribly hurt/torture/mutilate you?**

**S7: Okay, last thing I want to do is say, thanks for taking notice to Markusmiless. Thanks for taking notice and giving me a second chance with this story. I have made a new philosophy when writing being that I am not going to do anything unless it has purpose. Whether it is a conversation or action. Nothing is going to be throw away.**

**(So you didn't resolve to not suck anymore? That seems like a better new philosophy.)**

**^Dude, he can straight just cut you out of the crossover. Technically, it's because of him and Trebor making the crossover that you are even still in existence.^**

**(...This is Trebor we're talking about. AKA Mr. Cliffhanger. AKA the guy who loves his stupid plot twists. He could've pulled something out of his ass to get me back even without the crossover.)**

**S7: Okay, well, I gotta post this so say goodbye folks.**

**T117: Sayonara.**

**^1473I2.^**


	11. You Do (Not) Need Your Rage

**Ty:**

I felt my body stop sweating and was slightly sure that I was getting my fifteenth wind. It was hell running and gunning after what shape my body was in. We stopped at least four more times after our first stop at the stairs. Luckily, I knew when all the breaks were so I made sure to ask for us to stop when we got to one of those points. My last one that I knew about and needed to take was in the office right before Okeer.

"Okay, I think I am ready. Okeer should be through that door if I am remembering correctly."

"Remembering what?" Miranda asked, my gut response was to give a silent curse.

I suddenly remembered I stopped earlier and took a break near a computer. "I downloaded the schematics of this place from one of the terminals we passed."

"How did you… Nevermind. Why didn't you tell us this sooner?" Miranda asked getting suspicious.

"I would have mentioned it… if we ran off course. Which we didn't." I layed back into the operating table I was sitting on. "Trust me Miranda, I've got our backs."

"Ty, I have explained why that isn't an option." She said, tapping her foot like I was taking up her time.

I rolled my eyes and stood up. "Alright, lets go."

I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked back to see Shepard. "Don't push yourself. We don't want something happening like on Freedom's Progress."

"Relax, dude. I'm fine." I shrugged him off and started walking up the chairs. _What the hell was that? Since when does Shepard actually care about me? Or is he just scared I… er my rage… whatever the clone off me is will shoot the only piece of ass on the Normandy?_

I shrugged his hand off and gave him my classic smile. "Relax, it's not like I am going to explode or something."

"Are you sure about that?" John asked with an eyebrow raised skeptically.

_No. _"Yes." I answered with false confidence.

He nodded and walked past, taking charge of the group. Following him, we all walked through the door in uniform, me taking the back and came to see Okeer. He was typing away at his computer like he always does in every game, giving a funny throaty pleased sound.

"Good, you're here. I have been watching your progress on the monitors." He turned around to us. "It's about time. The batteries on these tanks will not wait while you play with these idiotic mercs."

"I take it you are Okeer. You don't seem particularly caged or… grateful that I am here." John said, cocking his head to the side like he does when something annoys him.

"You may claim be here to help, but the formerly deceased Shepard is not a sign of gentle change. Suprised? All Krogan should know you . Or have you forgotten your actions on Virmire?"

"I didn't have a lot of room for finesse. If there had been any other solution, I'd have considered it."

Okeer stepped away from his terminal and walked right up so that he was only a few inches away from Shepard. "But I approve. Saren's horde were not true Krogan. Numbers alone are nothing. The mistake of an outsider, one these mercenaries have also made. " He quickly turned around and walked toward the window. "I gave their leader my rejects for her army. But she grows impatient. It's time for you to take me out of here."

Okeer marveled at the window for a second and I could tell that Shepard didn't know what to say. Unfortunately, if memory serves, this is a point where one of the crew makes an ass of herself or…

"We are here about the Collectors, we couldn't care less about your problems." The prize goes to Miranda for making an ass of herself.

A displeased look came across Okeer's face. "Ah, I see. Collector attacks have increased. A human concern. My requests were focused elsewhere. I acquired the knowledge to create one pure soldier. With that, I will inflict upon the genophage the greatest insult an enemy can suffer. To be ignored."

John stepped away for a moment, thinking about what his next words would be. "Your methods are extreme, but you know how to deconstruct a threat… Will you join us?"

He nodded with Shepard's statement. "Perhaps, I can strike a deal for passage. But my prototype is not negotiable. It is the key to my legacy."

Almost as if on que, which it was, Jedore came over the speakers. "Attention! I have traced the Krogan release. Okeer, of course. I'm calling "blank slate" on this project. Gas these commandoes and start over from Okeer's data. Flush the tank!"

Going into a rage, he swung around and began typing on his computer. "She's that weak-willed? She'll kill my legacy with a damn valve!" He flipped around to Shepard real quick and began barking. "Shepard! You want information on the collectors? Stop her. She'll try to access contaminants in the storage bay."

"You could just start over, like she plans to. What's the big deal?"

"This tank is pure. It involved as much as trial data. Starting over will not duplicate it. It must survive. Jedore will be with the rejected tanks. Kill her. I will stay here… and do what must be done." And with those final words, I loaded up my assault rifle and started walking toward the door.

No more break for sure this time. I got a good breather during Shepard's talk with Okeer and hanging in the room prior. Now, it was just one lame boss battle and I was home free.

I stepped out the door and jogged down the stairs, all the while mapping out how I was going to deal with Jedore. She usually hid behind the mech at the beginning and once you took that out. She fell easier than a jenga tower that was put up around toddlers. All that meant though was she would undoubtedly be tougher too seeing how I had both Chakwas working to keep me fighting for every victory and some strange virus trying to kill me.

Bursting through the door, I slipped past Shepard and ran to the other end of the walk to flank Jedore's mech. There were no words for my relief as it stood, showing that it wasn't tampered with at all and was just a regular mech from the game. I had to give it a second for it to come out into my line of sight. Once it did I got a clear reading on it's health, it's shields were still partially up but they went away as soon as Kasumi hit it with an overload.

Once she did the thing stood out and lost it's balance for a second. Making a split decision call. I brought up my omni-tool and fired off an incinerate that clipped it's shoulder. I then moved my finger over and clicked the drone button. Instead of my drone appearing, I was treated to a buzz that I could only guess meant I couldn't do that action.

"Fuck recharge times!" I yelled, pulling back up my gun and taking aim.

It was too late to fire a shot, the mech targeted me since I blasted him with the incinerate. I only had a second to jump back behind one of the Krogan pods before it unleashed a spray of bullets that clipped and pinged off the metal in front of me. Since I was in cover, I checked my omni-tool to see if the recharge time was finished but there was no indication of it or at least, none that I could see.

At satisfying beep came over the device and I hit the activation button for the drone. It materialized into existence, ready to do my bidding. It took me a second after registering that I had summoned it successfully but once I did, orders came from my mouth.

"There is a big mech out there that can't be allowed to recharge it's shields. You know what to do?" Instead of a voice like the last times I summoned it, this drone just made a whirring sound and flew off. "Was that a yes or a no?!"

Everything that seemed to happen in this short while seemed to just piss me off as is. _My drone didn't talk anymore, I am constantly tired, and my anger could sprout off another me that… could totally help in this situation._

With my realization at hand I began to stoke my anger making the fire inside me burn brighter. _Miranda thinks she is better than me! Nobody will ever take my side if something bad happens! They probably would leave me behind if given the option!_

I felt the familiar pull as something went to my right but instead of pulling away like the last time, I held my ground and made rage do all the work. There was several extreme pulls but finally he broke free prompting me to turn to him.

"You're angry, your enrage, and your mean. Am I right?"

He was breathing heavier than he did when he was tired or when he first came out.

"Good, take my rifle, I'll use my pistol and we are gonna go in there and cut the sucker down to size. Right?"

He snatched my assault rifle away and nodded.

"Alright, three-" He leapt out from cover and began firing at the mech. "Or just go barreling in. Yeah, lets wing it."

I ran out of cover on the opposite side, taking in everything in an instant. Rage was going toe to toe with the mech. Standing right up to him and firing burst after burst of my assault rifle. Following his lead, I ripped the Phalanx pistol off my side, firing shot after shot into his back.

The dual attack confused the mech and it began turning to me then to him. My clip expelled at the same time as Rage giving the mech a chance to turn to me ready to fire. That was it, I was about to die until my drone weaved out from a corner and blast the mech. It took it's last bit of health and blew it sky high.

I turned from the mech and looked back toward Jedore but Shepard was finishing her off with a shotgun blast. Looking around at the rest of the team, I saw Miranda and Kasumi had taken down a Krogan meaning that should be everything.

"Shepard, I'm not reading any vitals from Okeer. You may want to go back and check on him when given the chance." EDI called over everyone's radios.

That was the que for the three of them to take off back up the stairs, hoping that it was just a glitch and Okeer was fine. I ,however, stayed back, there was no need for me to see what happens since I already had before. To be honest, this mission always bored me in the game and it still did in real life.

I looked back over my shoulder at Rage and saw him going to town on the Ymir, beating it with some metal pipe he had found on the ground. It almost digusted me to see my body secumbing to rage so easily. Worse, I relied on it. I needed his help.

Placing my pistol at my hip, I walked over to Rage and snapped the pipe away. "Alright big guy. Time to get back in my head. Do you know how we do this?"

He looked at me angrily and nodded, sticking his hand out toward me. I looked from it to him and then back, wishing he would speak instead of gestures. Reaching my hand up, I took his and felt my anger return to me and he disappeared into some sort of pixelated absorption in my hand.

"That's gonna take some getting used to."

A moment later, an extreme headache came over me that forced me to sit down before I fell. It was like, something was trying to force its way forward in my mind. Like I was experiencing a painful… memory.

**^Why is this late?^**

**~Same reason that a lot of fics are updating late right now. Midterms!~**

**S7: That is right people. Midterms are upon us and you know what that means?**

**^You will have even less time than the meager amount you put into this fic?^**

**~Well, that and he will have to wait for his new betareader to do checks on it as well.~**

**^When did Spike get a new betareader? Doesn't Trebor beta for you?^**

**S7: Well, I am kinda a last minute, work my ass off kind of guy while Trebor is a, I got this done weeks in advance. So, he usually isn't available when I need to upload.**

**^Well, that explains why the last couple chapters have been shit.^**

**S7:... Yes, that completely does. Anyway, I am going to try and get as much time as I can into these but don't push me too hard. I have to build a portfolio for speech class.**

**^Boo, you are trying to further your education^**

**~... Okay, well, can I give the sign off?~**

**S7: I'm suprised you asked-**

**~1473I2~**


	12. I Will (Not) Succumb to Anger

**Shepard:**

John stepped into the lab and saw Okeer, laying on the ground unnaturally still. He stopped at the edge of the computer and watched the video for a moment before turning to look at the pod. He could take it with him, after all, a Krogan is always a welcome ally but there was no guarantee that this Krogan would be his ally.

"Should we take him with us?" he asked Kasumi and Miranda. Though, in reality he knew he should be asking Ty.

"It's an experimental Krogan designed to be perfect. Least we could do with it is take it and sell it for some quick cash." Kasumi suggested, keeping her tone somewhere between serious and sarcastic.

Miranda stepped up to it and looked at the Krogan. "I agree with Kasumi. This pod looks like it won't pop unless we want it to. Can't hurt to sell it to some salarians."

"Alright, sounds good." He brought his hand up to his ear. "Shepard to Normandy, we need pick up. Heavy lift necessary."

He received a confirmation tone to show they were coming but that was it.

"Alright, they are on their way. Lets take a look around and see if we can find anything that can help us." He said, taking a look back at the pod before Ty caught his eye out the window.

Miranda and Kasumi took off back toward the door while he looked at the window at Ty. Even now, he can see how the User had been affected by his time away from society. Usually, he would be jumping all over the place and spouting jokes but instead he looked off into the distance. The only way he could describe the boy was sad, the kind of sadness that comes from feeling truly alone.

"He truly is broken, isn't he?" Shepard didn't need to turn around to see who it was.

"So, you weren't a dream?" He said, turning around to see the woman that visited him in death.

"Well, there are those that would call a visage such as me a dream." She joked walking up to the window. "How has he been?"

"What? A supreme being like you isn't able to watch him any time you want?" Shepard asked, surprised by her asking the question.

"I'm not omnipresent… at least, not yet. Anyway, the main reason I am here is for an update on Ty. How is he doing? Is he able to adjust back? Do you think he is about to have a melt down and kill everyone?"

"Well, he splits when he gets really angry."

She nodded and cupped her chin in her hand. "He is shedding his emotions… sounds like his mind wants to get back to that state of no pain. He wants to feel invulnerable."

He crossed his arms and stepped next to her. "What should I do about him? If he really does go crazy."

Layla pulled a rag out of her pocket and held it out to him. "This mask is something I whipped up to help you. It's armored and built like any other mask in this universe."

"I feel like there was about to be a but…" He took the mask.

"But, in reality, it's a nullifier for him. An electric shock will course through the mask that will be powerful enough to knock him out." She said, pulling a small device out of her pocket that was about the size of an old world dime. "It's magnetic, just place it on your palm and press it if he gets out of control."

He began to place it near his palm but stopped, instead optioning to place it under his arm where his armor would keep it from getting pressed unless he did it himself. "I think it will be better here. Nobody will see it and there is no chance of an accidental press."

"I'm only giving you the tools to stop him if he gets out of control. Not a license to control him... What the hell am I saying? There is no way anyone could control him." She shook her head and stepped away from the class and took a seat on the console. "He's been a hurricane since I met him."

"Since you met him? What are you talking about? Who are you?" John asked, seeing a chance to get some answers finally coming to him.

"You ever hear of Ty talking about an ex-girlfriend of his?" She asked, looking at the ground.

"Ah, that would explain your connection. But from what I heard, you left him."

"I didn't leave him!" She snapped. "I got stuck in here. I had to go through all of this…"

John made a down motion trying to calm her. "Calm down, I was just stating what I was told. What do you mean by, you have done all this before?"

"When I was sucked in, it was with a different Shepard in a different playthrough. I had my own trials, but… Ty has had a much harder time." She looked down at her hand and touched each finger to her thumb. "It's all that stupid zero's fault. Well, the virus that corrupted the data that made it… yeah, stupid zero."

"Is that doing something to him?" John asked, looking over the the image that burned bright red in the center of Ty's back.

She began to disappear. "He shouldn't have been able to absorb the data that made it. That's all I can tell you for now. I'm about to get found."

He gave her a half hearted nod goodbye but otherwise didn't pay her much in terms of her leaving. To simply say, that this had brought problems to light was an understatement. At least he had the mask to give Ty.

Then again, could he knowingly do this to Ty, already condemning the poor bastard to a time in invisible chains? Could he risk not putting a shock collar on something that could kill him so easily? John already knew that all choices had consequences but this was definitely something that had more weight than his previous choices. While the others could affect him at a later date, he could see an outcome for this one by next mission.

"Commander Shepard, this is Normandy Shuttle two coming in. Can you lay me down a landing vector?" His ear comm buzzed.

Bringing his hand up, he answered. "Yeah, no problem. We are going to be up in the tower of junk so if you can start heading there, I'll set you up with an area to come in at."

**Ty:**

Someone pushed me to the side, obviously trying to wake me up but I wasn't having any of it. I needed sleep after the strenuous run through that stupid junk planet. There was no way on Hell or Earth I was going to get up and leave my seat.

"Do I have to hit you with an overload to get you to move?" Kasumi asked.

"Murph." I grunted, waving her away clumsily.

"C'mon, you can sleep in the crew quarters." She grabbed me by the wrist and managed to haul me up to my feel pretty easily, even with my armor on. "Wow, you are really light…"

"Yeah, two years of no eating will do that to you." I balanced on my feet and began to follow her, my energy level completely nonexistent.

"Two years… C'mon lets get you some food. I bet the chef will whip you up some ramen. It's pretty hard to screw up ramen." Her tone was a little scarce.

I shook my head as we got onto the elevator. "I only eat things that are pre made or that I cook."

"You… cook?" Kasumi asked, throwing my arm around her shoulder to help me stand.

"Yeah, where are Shepard and Miranda?" I asked, it suddenly hitting me that I didn't see them at all.

"We all drew straws to see who would get you up. I drew the short straw." I took my arm off her after she finished and shook my head.

"You didn't have to do that."

"It was fine. Not like I have anybody that I was planning to meet or any responsibilities on the ship." She tried to take my arm again but I didn't let her.

The elevator opened up and I started toward the kitchen, though I didn't feel like I could even stay awake while I was cooking. Still, hunger was a more powerful urge then the need to sleep at the moment. I got to kitchen and began to pull out all manner of pots and pans, planning to cook something.

After a quick peak in the fridge, I knew what I was making… again. "Well then, looks like Rupert didn't leave me anything for cooking besides eggs."

"I'm sure there are noodles in the cupboard if you want to try mixing the ingredients." She said, obviously signalling she wanted some.

Tired as I was I turned to her and sarcastically asked. "Well then, would you like me to make the both of us something to eat?"

"Well, I'm glad you finally figured out what I was hinting at." She said, smirking at me but as I was guessing it was because she thought she was being sly about the hints.

I filled a pot and placed it on the stove before putting some dry noodles in. "So, I'm guessing you don't cook much."

"What makes you say that?" She asks, keeping a casual tone.

"You were surprised when I said I cook and you are asking me to cook. Since you don't seem all that lazy to me, I find it safe to assume you don't like it or don't know how to."

"You got me, I wasn't the cook in the thief crew. I was the thief." She leaned back into her seat. "So, what were you in your crew? I've heard and seen some information about a crew of 'Users', you being one of them."

"I… I was the screw up." I said, thinking about all my failures in the previous mission.

"Screw up? Obviously if they succeeded you didn't screw up."

"No, but I made bad choices during the entire time. Eventually, it all accumulated in the entirety of the last crew alienating me." I admitted, thinking back to the Citadel and refusing to revive Tali.

"I'm sure it wasn't that bad." She said, thinking and trying to figure out what I could have done that was so bad.

"One of the crew died, that death made me stronger so I was willing to leave her dead." I admitted, fully expecting Kasumi to walk away at that moment.

She stayed and her tone became way more serious. "Now, why would you do that? I can at least assume there was reasoning beyond you just didn't want to."

"I was thinking like I could do more with the power I had and without her. Trade one life for millions in a sense. Hell, if I still had that power, this mission wouldn't be happening. I could just drop the Collectors with a flick of my wrist. At the very least, I wouldn't have had my ass captured because that stupid bitch wouldn't have been there to stop me from getting on the escape shuttle. I wouldn't have been tortured for years and-"

"Ty!" Kasumi yelled getting my attention. "Hold your breath and count to ten."

I looked down and saw my hands were white-knuckle clenched as I was raging. Luckily, Kasumi's words got to me and I was able to begin calming myself. I took a deep breath and held it, trying to bring myself from an out of control fire to a small simmer.

"One… two… three… four… five… six… seven… eight… nine… ten."I unclenched my fists and slumped my shoulders. "This is going to take some getting used to."

"Splitting every time you get angry? It's definitely a… condition. At least it is controllable."

"God, how does Bruce Banner do it?" I asked, turning back to the food, beginning to refine it into something edible.

"Hey, could be worse, you could have someone inside your head instead of anger splitting off." She remarked jokingly.

"Don't even joke about that."

**S7: Sorry about not warning y'all about taking the week off last week. It kinda just happened. Didn't plan to but it happens.**

**^Maybe you should stop apologizing every time you are late and just upload these?^**

**S7: No, Sunday night or Monday morning. That is my upload goal and luckily, I can write every night now. I got a good schedule now.**

**~Alright, well now that you got that out of the way. Don't forget to give us your questions for chapter 15 when you think of them.~**

**^And we will catch you guys next week.^**

**S7: Yep, gotta pop over to Trebor's now.**


	13. I Can (Not) Control My Anger

**Miranda:**

Miranda leaned back in exasperation after finally finishing the previous mission report. It would be a lot simpler if Shepard would submit reports without cutting information that he deemed not for The Illusive Man. Then, she could just basically copy and paste his work and send it.

Instead, she had to pick his reports apart with a fine tooth comb and fix what was edited or incorrect. Most of it was on purpose but others she could legitimately him remembering incorrectly. Every now and then, she would find something worded incorrectly or an event that happened a bit differently.

With a few quick button presses, she sent the report to the Illusive man and stood to leave her room. She had been in there running on six hours and as much as she liked having a small asylum, she needed food. _Hopefully Rupert is close by._

Her door opened and music and what sounded like screaming lyrics drowned out anything else. Her first reaction was to step away from the door and let it close but then her stomach grumbled, reminding her that she needed to eat. It won the battle of her senses and she stepped out the door, seeing a bunch of workers gathered in the mess.

This prompted her to investigate what the meaning was that so many would be off duty. She bolted around the corner to see Kasumi Goto handing a plate to one of many workers in line and Ty with an apron on over his armor moving frying pans around on the stove. Her hands clenched and she bolted forward up to the both of them.

"What is the meaning of this?! Why is the music so loud?!" She shouted, getting Ty and Kasumi's attention.

With a flick of his wrist, Ty flipped a pancake out of one pan and caught it back in the same pan. "What's it look like?! Seriously, you would think you would know breakfast for dinner when you saw it!"

"Seriously?! What about the music?!"

"Who cooks without music?! They go hand in hand!" Ty said, pushing a pancake out onto a big stack before pouring batter into the pan.

"This is ridiculous! It's almost-"

Miranda was slapped on the back so hard that she had to stop talking. "C'mon Miranda, trust me in saying that there are plenty worse things that Ty could be doing than cooking to whole crew dinner. Also, did you get Joker's order ready?"

"Don't forget to get a tip out of him. If he is going to sit on his ass all day up there then lets make damn sure that he gets us some god damn money for it." Ty said before handing a plate that was set off to the side for Joker.

"Okay, oh and one more thing, there is a Krogan down in the cargo bay that is going to tear this ship a new one if we don't get him some food." John said rubbing the back of his head, like he was checking a sore.

Ty looked at the tower of pancakes and sighed. "Guess I don't have the backup that I was so proud of. Just take the tower down to him. How many people are left to get food Kasumi?"

"Looks like just five more."

"Alright, I got four more right here." He said, dishing out four of the pancakes and handing them to Kasumi.

She took them and put them on plates before handing them to the crew. Miranda watched until Shepard grabbed Joker's meal and left before grabbing Kasumi from her spot and pulling her off into Miranda's office.

"Um, what are you doing?" She asked, whipping Kasumi away from the doors so they were sealed off in the office.

Kasumi looked around like she was being punked. "Um, I wanted something to eat and Ty started cooking when it attracted everyone in the ship. They felt left out so we decided to feed the crew."

"I mean, why are you supporting his constant need to screw with everything? Seriously, we are on an important mission and he is distracting the crew. For all we know, we could be attacked at any minute and nobody is at their station." She complained to Kasumi.

Kasumi moved her hands down in a settle down motion. "Calm down Miranda. I'm helping Ty channel all his aggression and anguish from being in his predicament. He won't be splitting or anything else so long as he feels like he is making a difference."

Miranda calmed down after a moment and held her head in her hand. "Hm, I can see your point with wanting to keep him from getting out of control. That being said, I don't condone the distraction of the crew. If you want to help him, then do it in a way that he won't be distracting everyone."

"Well, what do you suggest I do? Teach him to meditate?" She said sarcastically.

Miranda thought about it and nodded her head approvingly. "That just might work. Do you know a lot about that kind of stuff. Finding your center and just overall controlling your emotions?"

"That's racist." She said, crossing her arms disapprovingly.

Miranda felt bad for a second before remembering Kasumi's dosier. "It's not racist if I'm not assuming anything. I know this because it is in your dossier."

"Alright, fair enough. So, where do you suggest that I work with him on this stuff?"

"The hangar bay, it's secluded and unless he really screws up and blows a hole in the ship. No one will notice what you two are doing in there."

"Alright, I'll go get him and start once he is done." Kasumi said, obviously not liking that Miranda was ordering her around.

"Well, hurry him up. I don't want the crew distracted for much longer. God knows what will happen if Ty is left out there with them for much longer." A spark of hope lit in Miranda at that moment, the hope that Ty would spend so much time in that bay that he wouldn't even think about coming up to the Crew Quarters.

**Ty:**

Kasumi lead me out of the elevator and into the vehicle bay, my pancakes slowly cooling from the syrup and butter melting on them. "So, why did I have to come here before I could eat my pancakes?"

"I wanted to talk to you, away from where to crew could hear about your… condition." She said, somewhat uncomfortable with what she was about to say.

"You're not going to say that you have fallen for me or something are you? DON'T HIT ME!" I said, reflexively protecting my face as a flash of some red-head winding up to hit me.

"Um, what?" Kasumi asked, prompting me to retake a relaxed position. "Are you okay?"

I dug into my stack of pancakes and began eating. "I don't know. It's reflex or something like that. It's nothing to worry about."

"Okay, you know, when people say don't worry it makes me worry." She said looking at my food. "So, why'd you bring down food for five people?"

I closed my mouth and chewed my food, somewhat embarrassed for my eating habits. "Actually, I eat about this much on a regular basis. Well, regular basis before getting captured."

"Um… how did you look before getting captured?" She asked, scratching her head.

I pulled up a snapshot that I got with Danny, Cody and I. "I'm the one in the middle."

She looked at me, then to the pancakes, then to the picture. "Okay, I gotta call you on this one. There is no way you ate this much before the Collectors took you."

"No, I did. Ask anyone on the crew." I began to really pig out on the food, my hunger taking control from my ability to keep modest.

"Okay, that's good, I guess." She quieted down until after I finished my pancakes. "Well, now that the food is out of the way, I was asked to teach you some of my techniques for controlling emotions...well, 'asked' by Miranda's standards anyway."

I wiped some of the remaining syrup off my mouth with a raised eyebrow. "What are you talking about? Close my eyes and count to ten? That's liable to get me shot in a firefight."

"You don't need to hold yourself back in a gunfight but here on the ship is the main concern. I mean, say you get mad at Miranda, and then there's a murderous version of you running around. Not exactly a good thing."

"Okay, I get it. Don't want everyone losing their shit over how awesome it would be it there were two of me." I agreed, keeping my voice light but making it sound like I was serious to screw with her.

"Well, maybe it would be cool if there were two good cooks aboard, but-" She shook her head. "You do know how your powers work, right? There's not some mysterious past or amnesia or something keeping you from getting control over them?"

"Amnesia? That's lame, like really lame. Like, if I had amnesia it would seem like a lazy plot device just to piss you guys off and drive a wedge between me and the crew." I said, referencing something that I had no idea where it came from.

"Just checking...so, you're going to think this is horribly cliche and a bit out there, but have you tried meditation?"

"Um, you mean that buddhism thing that you can achieve all knowledge or something like that?" I asked, scratching my head thinking of what it could be.

"...I'm talking about basically trying to get your mind completely clear of everything."

"Why do I feel like you are trying to resist saying, 'though your head is pretty empty as is.' or something equivalent to that."

"If I was going to insult you, that two of you thing would've been a set up for 'yeah, one of you is bad enough' or something."

I put my hands up in submittance. "Alright, I'm a bit paranoid with people and assuming they already hate me."

"Why is that?"

I gave her a questioning look. "You haven't noticed how everyone around here treats me? I mean, I know you wander around invisibly and stuff so I assume you have seen it happen."

"Hey, to be fair, you did have an evil clone of yourself try to kill Shepard's former teammate. Not exactly going to earn you brownie points."

"I feel like I am in the negatives with those." I sat down on the ground and invited her to do the same. Alright, what do I do to meditate?"

"Close your eyes, and just focus on breathing. In through the nose, out through the mouth."

I did as she said, and sat down, only focusing on my breathing. _Breath in, breath out. Breath in, breath out. Breath in, breath out…_

I lost myself in the thoughts and the focus, all feelling was replaced with a sense that I was floating. It felt good as I just relax like I was in my lazy chair back at my apartment. Moving my hands, I could almost feel the fuzzy ridges in the design so much that it prompted me to open my eyes.

For a second, I couldn't believe it. I was in my apartment again and everything looked just the way I left it. I was excited and at the same time, somewhat disturbed.

It was like something was in the apartment with me and it was trapped. I stood up out of my chair and began to walked around. The presence that seemed to reverberate and cause the dissatisfied stillness was in the back of the hallway. Against my better judgement, I walked toward it not knowing if it was courage or stupidity that drove me forward.

I came nearer and nearer to the back of the hallway where a door that I don't remember existing stood. It had cracks along it but looked like it was still holding together well. My heart began to settle as I thought that the door was nothing to be afraid of. That notion was thrown out of the door as a scratching began to come from the other side and a raspy voice began to speak.

"I know you are there. Why don't you open the door and let me help you?I promise that I can help. All you have to do is turn the nob." It was sly and somewhat convincing but something else about it made any trust it would have gathered flee.

I went through any voices that it could be but nothing came to mind. It didn't strike a bell from what I had heard so I spoke to it. "Who… is behind the door?"

"Rage? Did you finally get your voice back? No, you sound unsure of yourself. Not like anger which flies blindly and falls apart when you ask why." The sound of a single claw began to drag itself down the door and the voice chuckled with pleasure. "No, you're not uncontrolled. You're the person aren't you. The big man in control. How is it going, Ty?"

I slammed my fist on the door, something about his laugh brought my anger out. "Who is this?"

"Oh, you've forgotten me already? After all I did to help you and Cecelia?" It chuckled again, like it knew a secret that I didn't. Then again, I don't remember anyone named Cecelia.

"WHO ARE YOU?!" I slammed my fist on the door again and it began to shake, making me nervous for only a second but it went away when the voice began to laugh again.

"Why don't you come in here and find out?" It answered, followed by the sound of steps leaving the door.

Rage took hold and I kicked the door open, not even thinking of what the repercussions of doing it might be. I regretted it from the moment that the voice stepped forward and into the light.

It was my greatest enemy. It was Saren.

**S7: God, Murphy's law is sure as hell in effect big time this week.**

**^It's gonna be okay. The car will be fixed and everything will be better next week. It's Thanksgiving after all.^**

**~For those of you just joining Spike's pity party, and old man backed up into his car and bent the fuck out of it. It looks like the plastic packaging on a kids toy that has been pushed inward. Then, he found out that his entire future depends on the next speech he has to give in a class. It's on the same day as his court case against the bastard that hit him.~**

**S7: Sorry if I feel bad for myself. This week has sucked and that isn't even a quarter of my problems that have surfaced. Those are the ones that I am actually willing to share.**

**^Ah, calm your ass down. Pop in some Greatful Dead and reread one of your old stories for a laugh.^**

**~UiaWoF would be a good one.~**

**^The fuck is UiaWoF?^**

**S7: Nothing, look, I gotta go and get ready for school tomorrow. Please R and R and remember that we have to chapters till a Q/A chapter so leave a Q.**


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